Magnetic Celestial Bodies in Orbit
What would be the effect of large magnetic celestial bodies orbiting each other?
Could a star have enough metallic content to become magnetic?
What would the effect be on magnetic planets in orbit around it?
If that's not possible, how about if a magnetic planet had a magentic moon?
If your answer is that the magnetic pull wouldn't be powerful enough to do anything, take the example of two magnetars in a really tight orbit.
Assuming the result might have something to do with electricity, what effect would this have on the habitability any planets/moons involved? Could it be harnessed somehow?
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1 answer
Interesting models have been made of T Tauri stars, pre-main sequence stars that can have strong magnetic fields (though clearly not as strong as those of magnetars). Data is given in Johns-Krull (2007). The effects of this magnetic field on interactions between the star and its surrounding disk were modeled in (among others) Kuker et al. (2003). Angular momentum is transferred between the star and the disk. The torque generated by the magnetic field on the star is $$T=2\pi r^2 \int_0^\pi (\mathbf{t\cdot r})\sin \theta d\theta $$ where $\mathbf{t}$ is $$\mathbf{t}=\frac{r\sin\theta B_{\phi}}{4\pi}\mathbf{B}$$ and $\mathbf{\cdot}$ denotes the dot product (vectors are represented in $\mathbf{bold}$ type). The authors primarily use spherical coordinates.
In this model, angular momentum is transferred from the star to the disk. However, in a situation with one or more orbiting bodies, there remains the possibility that some angular momentum could be transferred to one or more of the bodies, thereby changing its orbit.
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