Detection of Earth-mass planets with the radial velocity method requires a precision of about 10cm/s to identify a signal caused by such a planet. At the same time, noise originating in the photospheric and subphotospheric layers of the parent star is of the order of meters per second. Understanding the physical nature of the photospheric noise (so-called stellar jitter) and characterizing it are critical for developing techniques to filter out these unwanted signals. We take advantage of current computational and technological capabilities to create 3D realistic models of stellar subsurface convection and atmospheres to characterize the photospheric jitter. We present 3D radiative hydrodynamic models of several solar-type target stars of various masses and metallicities, discuss how the turbulent surface dynamics and spectral line characteristics depend on stellar properties, and provide stellar jitter estimates for these stars.

We present a 3D magnetohydrodynamic study of the effect that stellar and planetary magnetic fields have on the calculated Lyα absorption during the planetary transit, employing parameters that resemble the exoplanet HD209458b. We assume a dipolar magnetic field for both the star and the planet, and use the Parker solution to initialize the stellar wind. We also consider the radiative processes and the radiation pressure.

We use the numerical MHD code Guacho to run several models varying the values of the planetary and stellar magnetic moments within the range reported in the literature.

We found that the presence of magnetic fields influences the escaping neutral planetary material spreading the absorption Lyα line for large stellar magnetic fields.