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Journal ArticleDOI

The escape of heavy atoms from the ionosphere of HD209458b. I. A photochemical–dynamical model of the thermosphere

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a hydrodynamic escape model for the upper atmosphere that includes all of the detected species in order to explain their presence at high altitudes, and to further constrain the temperature and velocity profiles.
About: This article is published in Icarus.The article was published on 2013-11-01 and is currently open access. It has received 263 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Hydrodynamic escape & Atmosphere.
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Journal ArticleDOI
Heike Rauer1, Heike Rauer2, C. Catala3, Conny Aerts4  +164 moreInstitutions (51)
TL;DR: The PLATO 2.0 mission as discussed by the authors has been selected for ESA's M3 launch opportunity (2022/24) to provide accurate key planet parameters (radius, mass, density and age) in statistical numbers.
Abstract: PLATO 2.0 has recently been selected for ESA’s M3 launch opportunity (2022/24). Providing accurate key planet parameters (radius, mass, density and age) in statistical numbers, it addresses fundamental questions such as: How do planetary systems form and evolve? Are there other systems with planets like ours, including potentially habitable planets? The PLATO 2.0 instrument consists of 34 small aperture telescopes (32 with 25 s readout cadence and 2 with 2.5 s candence) providing a wide field-of-view (2232 deg 2) and a large photometric magnitude range (4–16 mag). It focusses on bright (4–11 mag) stars in wide fields to detect and characterize planets down to Earth-size by photometric transits, whose masses can then be determined by ground-based radial-velocity follow-up measurements. Asteroseismology will be performed for these bright stars to obtain highly accurate stellar parameters, including masses and ages. The combination of bright targets and asteroseismology results in high accuracy for the bulk planet parameters: 2 %, 4–10 % and 10 % for planet radii, masses and ages, respectively. The planned baseline observing strategy includes two long pointings (2–3 years) to detect and bulk characterize planets reaching into the habitable zone (HZ) of solar-like stars and an additional step-and-stare phase to cover in total about 50 % of the sky. PLATO 2.0 will observe up to 1,000,000 stars and detect and characterize hundreds of small planets, and thousands of planets in the Neptune to gas giant regime out to the HZ. It will therefore provide the first large-scale catalogue of bulk characterized planets with accurate radii, masses, mean densities and ages. This catalogue will include terrestrial planets at intermediate orbital distances, where surface temperatures are moderate. Coverage of this parameter range with statistical numbers of bulk characterized planets is unique to PLATO 2.0. The PLATO 2.0 catalogue allows us to e.g.: - complete our knowledge of planet diversity for low-mass objects, - correlate the planet mean density-orbital distance distribution with predictions from planet formation theories,- constrain the influence of planet migration and scattering on the architecture of multiple systems, and - specify how planet and system parameters change with host star characteristics, such as type, metallicity and age. The catalogue will allow us to study planets and planetary systems at different evolutionary phases. It will further provide a census for small, low-mass planets. This will serve to identify objects which retained their primordial hydrogen atmosphere and in general the typical characteristics of planets in such low-mass, low-density range. Planets detected by PLATO 2.0 will orbit bright stars and many of them will be targets for future atmosphere spectroscopy exploring their atmosphere. Furthermore, the mission has the potential to detect exomoons, planetary rings, binary and Trojan planets. The planetary science possible with PLATO 2.0 is complemented by its impact on stellar and galactic science via asteroseismology as well as light curves of all kinds of variable stars, together with observations of stellar clusters of different ages. This will allow us to improve stellar models and study stellar activity. A large number of well-known ages from red giant stars will probe the structure and evolution of our Galaxy. Asteroseismic ages of bright stars for different phases of stellar evolution allow calibrating stellar age-rotation relationships. Together with the results of ESA’s Gaia mission, the results of PLATO 2.0 will provide a huge legacy to planetary, stellar and galactic science.

965 citations

01 Apr 2016

588 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of M dwarfs older than ∼1 Gyr could have been in runaway greenhouses for several hundred million years following their formation due to the star's extended pre-main sequence phase.
Abstract: We show that terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of M dwarfs older than ∼1 Gyr could have been in runaway greenhouses for several hundred million years following their formation due to the star's extended pre-main sequence phase, provided they form with abundant surface water. Such prolonged runaway greenhouses can lead to planetary evolution divergent from that of Earth. During this early runaway phase, photolysis of water vapor and hydrogen/oxygen escape to space can lead to the loss of several Earth oceans of water from planets throughout the habitable zone, regardless of whether the escape is energy-limited or diffusion-limited. We find that the amount of water lost scales with the planet mass, since the diffusion-limited hydrogen escape flux is proportional to the planet surface gravity. In addition to undergoing potential desiccation, planets with inefficient oxygen sinks at the surface may build up hundreds to thousands of bar of abiotically produced O2, resulting in potential false...

497 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors obtained a high-resolution transit spectrum of HD 189733b in the region around the resonance doublet of Nai at 589 nm, to characterize the absorption signature that was previously detected from space at low resolution.
Abstract: Context. Atmospheric properties of exoplanets can be constrained with transit spectroscopy. At low spectral resolution, this technique is limited by the presence of clouds. The signature of atomic sodium (Nai), known to be present above the clouds, is a powerful probe of the upper atmosphere, where it can be best detected and characterized at high spectral resolution. Aims. Our goal is to obtain a high-resolution transit spectrum of HD 189733b in the region around the resonance doublet of Nai at 589 nm, to characterize the absorption signature that was previously detected from space at low resolution. Methods. We analyzed archival transit data of HD 189733b obtained with the HARPS spectrograph (R = 115 000) at the ESO 3.6-m telescope. We performed di erential spectroscopy to retrieve the transit spectrum and light curve of the planet, implementing corrections for telluric contamination and planetary orbital motion. We compared our results to synthetic transit spectra calculated from isothermal models of the planetary atmosphere. Results. We spectrally resolve the Nai D doublet and measure line contrasts of 0:64 0:07% (D2) and 0:40 0:07% (D1) and FWHMs of 0:52 0:08 A. This corresponds to a detection at the 10 level of excess of absorption of 0:32 0:03% in a passband of 2 0:75 A centered on each line. We derive temperatures of 2600 600 K and 3270 330 K at altitudes of 9800 2800 and 12 700 2600 km in the Nai D1 and D2 line cores, respectively. We measure a temperature gradient of 0.2 K km 1 in the region where the sodium absorption dominates the haze absorption from a comparison with theoretical models. We also detect a blueshift of 0:16 0:04 A (4 ) in the line positions. This blueshift may be the result of winds blowing at 8 2 km s 1 in the upper layers of the atmosphere. Conclusions. We demonstrate the relevance of studying exoplanet atmospheres with high-resolution spectrographs mounted on 4-m-class telescopes. Our results pave the way for an in-depth characterization of physical conditions in the atmospheres of many exoplanetary systems with future spectrographs such as ESPRESSO on the VLT or HiReS and METIS on the E-ELT.

293 citations


Cites background from "The escape of heavy atoms from the ..."

  • ...Our results suggest that a part of the sodium absorption occurs in the (lower) thermosphere, where heating by the stellar X/EUV photons occurs (Lammer et al. 2003; Yelle 2004; Vidal-Madjar et al. 2011; Koskinen et al. 2013)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a chain of models, linking the formation of a planet to its observable present-day spectrum, is presented, including the planet's formation and migration, its long-term thermodynamic evolution, a variety of disk chemistry models, a non-gray atmospheric model, and a radiometric model to obtain simulated spectroscopic observations with James Webb Space Telescope and ARIEL.
Abstract: The composition of a planet's atmosphere is determined by its formation, evolution, and present-day insolation. A planet's spectrum therefore may hold clues on its origins. We present a "chain" of models, linking the formation of a planet to its observable present-day spectrum. The chain links include (1) the planet's formation and migration, (2) its long-term thermodynamic evolution, (3) a variety of disk chemistry models, (4) a non-gray atmospheric model, and (5) a radiometric model to obtain simulated spectroscopic observations with James Webb Space Telescope and ARIEL. In our standard chemistry model the inner disk is depleted in refractory carbon as in the Solar System and in white dwarfs polluted by extrasolar planetesimals. Our main findings are: (1) envelope enrichment by planetesimal impacts during formation dominates the final planetary atmospheric composition of hot Jupiters. We investigate two, under this finding, prototypical formation pathways: a formation inside or outside the water iceline, called "dry" and "wet" planets, respectively. (2) Both the "dry" and "wet" planets are oxygen-rich (C/O 1 for the "dry" planet. (3) While we consistently find C/O ratios <1, they still vary significantly. To link a formation history to a specific C/O, a better understanding of the disk chemistry is thus needed.

281 citations


Cites background from "The escape of heavy atoms from the ..."

  • ...…fractionation during the escape process (Hunten et al. 1987) which could modify the atmospheric composition should not be important, especially because the escape fluxes of hydrogen are expected to be sufficiently high in hot Jupiters in order to drag along heavy species (Koskinen et al. 2013)....

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References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a second-order extension of the Lagrangean method is proposed to integrate the equations of ideal compressible flow, which is based on the integral conservation laws and is dissipative, so that it can be used across shocks.

6,630 citations


"The escape of heavy atoms from the ..." refers methods in this paper

  • ...We used the flux conservative van Leer406 scheme (e.g., van Leer, 1979) for advection, and the semi-implicit Crank-407 Nicholson scheme (e.g, Jacobson, 1999) to solve for viscosity and conduction408 in the momentum and energy equations, respectively....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, solar photospheric and meteoritic CI chondrite abundance determinations for all elements are summarized and the best currently available photosphere abundances are selected, including the meteoritic and solar abundances of a few elements (e.g., noble gases, beryllium, boron, phosphorous, sulfur).
Abstract: Solar photospheric and meteoritic CI chondrite abundance determinations for all elements are summarized and the best currently available photospheric abundances are selected. The meteoritic and solar abundances of a few elements (e.g., noble gases, beryllium, boron, phosphorous, sulfur) are discussed in detail. The photospheric abundances give mass fractions of hydrogen (X ¼ 0:7491), helium (Y ¼ 0:2377), and heavy elements (Z ¼ 0:0133), leading to Z=X ¼ 0:0177, which is lower than the widely used Z=X ¼ 0:0245 from previous compilations. Recent results from standard solar models considering helium and heavy-element settling imply that photospheric abundances and mass fractions are not equal to protosolar abundances (representative of solar system abundances). Protosolar elemental and isotopic abundances are derived from photospheric abundances by considering settling effects. Derived protosolar mass fractions are X0 ¼ 0:7110, Y0 ¼ 0:2741, and Z0 ¼ 0:0149. The solar system and photospheric abundance tables are used to compute self-consistent sets of condensation temperatures for all elements. Subject headings: astrochemistry — meteors, meteoroids — solar system: formation — Sun: abundances — Sun: photosphere

4,305 citations


"The escape of heavy atoms from the ..." refers background in this paper

  • ...1208 In order to model the density profiles of the detected species in the iono1209 sphere, we assumed solar abundances of the heavy elements (Lodders, 2003), 1210 although this assumption can be adjusted as required to explain the obser1211 vations (Paper II)....

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  • ...…of1207 the 1D models further.1208 In order to model the density profiles of the detected species in the iono-1209 sphere, we assumed solar abundances of the heavy elements (Lodders, 2003),1210 although this assumption can be adjusted as required to explain the obser-1211 vations (Paper II)....

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  • ...1208 In order to model the density profiles of the detected species in the iono1209 sphere, we assumed solar abundances of the heavy elements (Lodders, 2003), 1210 although this assumption can be adjusted as required to explain the obser1211 vations (Paper II). As we already stated we found that H2, H2O, and CO 1212 dissociate above the 1 μbar level, releasing H, O, and C to the thermosphere 1213 (see also Moses et al., 2011). We note that the detection of Si in the upper 1214 atmosphere implies that silicon does not condense into clouds of forsterite 1215 and enstatite in the lower atmosphere as argued by e.g., Visscher et al. (2010). 1216 The dominant Si species is then SiO, which dissociates at a similar pressure 1217 level as the other molecules....

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Journal ArticleDOI
23 Nov 1995-Nature
TL;DR: The presence of a Jupiter-mass companion to the star 51 Pegasi is inferred from observations of periodic variations in the star's radial velocity as discussed by the authors, which would be well inside the orbit of Mercury in our Solar System.
Abstract: The presence of a Jupiter-mass companion to the star 51 Pegasi is inferred from observations of periodic variations in the star's radial velocity. The companion lies only about eight million kilometres from the star, which would be well inside the orbit of Mercury in our Solar System. This object might be a gas-giant planet that has migrated to this location through orbital evolution, or from the radiative stripping of a brown dwarf.

3,957 citations

Journal ArticleDOI

3,371 citations


"The escape of heavy atoms from the ..." refers background in this paper

  • ...It is often assumed that the vertical velocity at the critical point is given by v(2) = c(2)(nc) so that the critical point coincides with the isothermal sonic point (Parker, 1958)....

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  • ...It is often assumed that the vertical velocity at the critical point is given by v(2) = c(2)(nc) so that the critical point coincides with the isothermal sonic point (Parker, 1958). However, Parker (1965) suggested that subsonic solutions are also possible if the density at the base of the flow exceeds a critical value determined from the energy equation....

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  • ...It is often assumed that the vertical670 velocity at the critical point is given by v2 = c2(ξc) so that the critical point671 coincides with the isothermal sonic point (Parker, 1958)....

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  • ...When Vidal-Madjar et al. (2003, 2004) detected the transits of HD209458b in the stellar FUV emission lines, they also argued that the planet is followed by comet-like tail of escaping hydrogen, and that hydrodynamic escape is required to drag oxygen and carbon atoms to the thermosphere. The model of Yelle (2004, 2006) was the first attempt to model the aeronomy and escape processes in detail and most of the assumptions in that work have been adopted by subsequent investigators. It solved the vertical equations of continuity, momentum, and energy for an escaping atmosphere, including photochemistry in the ionosphere and transfer of stellar XUV radiation. Based on a composition of hydrogen and helium, the results demonstrated that H2 dissociates in the thermosphere, which at high altitudes is dominated by H and H. The model also showed that stellar heating leads to temperatures of 10,000 K in the upper atmosphere, and predicted an energy-limited mass loss rate of 4.7 10(7) kg s 1 (Yelle, 2006). Yelle (2004) argued that conditions beyond 3Rp were too complex and uncertain to be modeled reliably and therefore chose an upper boundary at 3Rp, rather than at infinity, as adopted in early solar wind models....

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  • ...(11) reduces to the famous result for the altitude of the sonic point (Parker, 1958):...

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