Related papers: Thermally-Diven Atmospheric Escape
The potential habitability of an exoplanet is traditionally assessed by determining if its orbit falls within the circumstellar `habitable zone' of its star, defined as the distance at which water could be liquid on the surface of a planet…
Context. The atmosphere of exoplanets has been studied extensively in recent years, using numerical models to retrieve chemical composition, dynamical circulation or temperature from data. One of the best observational probes in…
Sub-Neptunes (planets with radii between 2 and 4 R$_{\oplus}$) are abundant around M-dwarf stars, yet the atmospheric dynamics of these planets is relatively unexplored. In this paper, we aim to provide a basic underpinning of the dry…
We simulate Venus' evolution with a coupled one-dimensional solar-atmosphere-lithosphere-mantle-core model to predict currently unobservable features and its eruptive mass flux. We identified four distinct evolutionary pathways that…
Planetary atmospheres cannot remain hydrostatic at all altitudes because they approach finite density at infinite radius, implying infinite mass. Classical treatments address this in two directions: either retain a hydrostatic structure…
Planetary atmospheres are commonly thought to result from the efficient outgassing of cooling magma oceans. During this stage, vigorous convective motions in the molten interior are believed to rapidly transport the dissolved volatiles to…
Atmospheric refraction affects to various degrees exoplanet transit, lunar eclipse, as well as stellar occultation observations. Exoplanet retrieval algorithms often use analytical expressions for the column abundance along a ray traversing…
Observations of transmission spectra reveal that hot Jupiters and Neptunes are likely to possess escaping atmospheres driven by stellar radiation. Numerous models predict that magnetic fields may exert significant influences on the…
Atmospheric escape in exoplanets has traditionally been observed using hydrogen Lyman-$\alpha$ and H-$\alpha$ transmission spectroscopy, but more recent detections have utilised the metastable helium triplet at 1083$~$nm. Since this feature…
The discovery of transiting "super-Earths" with inflated radii and known masses such as Kepler-11b-f, GJ 1214b and 55 Cnc e, indicates that these exoplanets did not lose their nebula-captured hydrogen-rich, degassed or impact-delivered…
Gas giant exoplanets orbiting at close distances to the parent star are subjected to large radiation and stellar wind fluxes. In this paper, hydrodynamic simulations of the planetary upper atmosphere and its interaction with the stellar…
Stimulated by the discovery of a number of close-in low-density planets, we generalise the Jeans escape parameter taking hydrodynamic and Roche lobe effects into account. We furthermore define $\Lambda$ as the value of the Jeans escape…
The hydrogen and water molecules respond very differently to the collisional-radiative processes taking place in planetary atmospheres. Naturally, the question arises whether H2O-rich atmospheres are more (or less) resilient to long-term…
Photoionization heating from UV radiation incident on the atmospheres of hot Jupiters may drive planetary mass loss. We construct a model of escape that includes realistic heating and cooling, ionization balance, tidal gravity, and pressure…
We compute grids of radiative-convective model atmospheres for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune over a range of intrinsic fluxes and surface gravities. The atmosphere grids serve as an upper boundary condition for models of the thermal…
We review several aspects of the calculation of exoplanet model atmospheres in the current era, with a focus on understanding the temperature-pressure profiles of atmospheres and their emitted spectra. Most of the focus is on gas giant…
To describe the evaporation status of the extrasolar planets, we propose to consider an energy diagram in which the potential energy of the planets is plotted versus the energy received by the upper atmosphere. Here we present a basic…
Many planets in the solar system and across the galaxy have hydrogen-rich atmospheres overlying more heavy element-rich interiors with which they interact for billions of years. Atmosphere-interior interactions are thus crucial to…
Using 3D radiative MHD simulations and Lyman-$\alpha$ transit calculations, we investigate the effect of magnetic fields on the observational signatures of atmospheric escape in exoplanets. Using the same stellar wind, we vary the planet's…
With the discovery of ever smaller and colder exoplanets, terrestrial worlds with hazy atmospheres must be increasingly considered. Our Solar System's Titan is a prototypical hazy planet, whose atmosphere may be representative of a large…