Illustration of how the direction of the IMF and the effective stellar change with distance from the star. v_planet (brown) is the orbital velocity of the planet, v_sw,eff (red) is the effective stellar wind direction in the frame of a planet in circular orbit and B (blue) is the IMF direction. The blue spiral lines represent Parker spirals (magnetic field lines). The depicted planet is in an orbit where effective stellar wind and magnetic field are parallel.