Related papers: Thermally-Diven Atmospheric Escape
Over the last decade, precise exoplanet transmission spectroscopy has revealed the atmospheres of dozens of exoplanets, driven largely by observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope. One major discovery has been the ubiquity of…
Atmospheric circulation on tidally-locked exoplanets is driven by the absorption and reradiation of heat from the host star. They are natural heat engines, converting heat into mechanical energy. A steady state is possible only if there is…
Early in the Moon's history volcanic outgassing may have produced a periodic millibar level atmosphere (Needham and Kring, 2017). We examined the relevant atmospheric escape processes and lifetime of such an atmosphere. Thermal escape rates…
The planets of the Solar System divide neatly between those with atmospheres and those without when arranged by insolation ($I$) and escape velocity ($v_{\mathrm{esc}}$). The dividing line goes as $I \propto v_{\mathrm{esc}}^4$. Exoplanets…
JWST observations of the 7-planet TRAPPIST-1 system will provide an excellent opportunity to test outcomes of stellar-driven evolution of terrestrial planetary atmospheres, including atmospheric escape, ocean loss and abiotic oxygen…
Context: The Solar System giant planets harbour a wide variety of moons. Moons around exoplanets are plausibly similarly abundant, even though most of them are likely too small to be easily detectable with modern instruments. Moons are…
Lyman-$\alpha$ transits provide an opportunity to test models of atmospheric escape directly. However, translating observations into constraints on the properties of the escaping atmosphere is challenging. The major reason for this is that…
Upper atmospheres of Hot Jupiters are subject to extreme radiation conditions that can result in rapid atmospheric escape. The composition and structure of the upper atmospheres of these planets are affected by the high-energy spectrum of…
Explosive volcanic eruptions play a fundamental role in the evolution and observability of rocky exoplanets, serving as a key mechanism for injecting volatiles into planetary atmospheres and potentially modifying their climate and…
Recent exoplanet statistics indicate that photo-evaporation has a great impact on the mass and bulk composition of close-in low-mass planets. While there are many studies addressing photo-evaporation of hydrogen-rich or water-rich…
The strength of Titan's methane cycle, as measured by precipitation and evaporation, is key to interpreting fluvial erosion and other indicators of the surface-atmosphere exchange of liquids. But the mechanisms behind the occurrence of…
Here we discuss the current state of knowledge on how atmospheric escape processes can fractionate noble gas isotopes and moderately volatile rock-forming elements that populate primordial atmospheres, magma ocean related environments, and…
Short-period sub-Neptunes are common in extrasolar systems. These sub-Neptunes are generally thought to have primary atmospheres of protoplanetary-disk gas origin. However, atmospheric escape followed by degassing from their interiors can…
In the core accretion paradigm of planet formation, gas giants only form a massive atmosphere after their progenitors exceeded a threshold mass: the critical core mass. Most (exo)planets, being smaller and rock/ice-dominated, never crossed…
The results of three-dimensional numerical simulations of the gas dynamics of the atmosphere of a "hot Jupiter" exoplanet during the passage of a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the central star are presented. These computations assumed…
The "cosmic shoreline," a semi-empirical relation that separates airless worlds from worlds with atmospheres as proposed by K. J. Zahnle & D. C. Catling, is now guiding large-scale JWST surveys aimed at detecting rocky exoplanet…
A major open question in exoplanet research is whether secondary atmospheres are rare around Earth-sized rocky exoplanets. In this work we determine the distance at which an Earth-sized planet orbiting a variety of stellar hosts could…
We present calculations for the evolution and surviving mass of highly-irradiated extrasolar giant planets (EGPs) at orbital semimajor axes ranging from 0.023 to 0.057 AU using a generalized scaled theory for mass loss, together with new…
When exposed to the high energy X-ray and ultraviolet radiation of a very active star, water vapor in the upper atmospheres of planets can be photodissociated and rapidly lost to space. In this paper, I study the chemical, thermal, and…
Climate transitions on exoplanets offer valuable insights into the atmospheric processes governing planetary habitability. Previous pure-steam atmospheric models show a thermal limit in outgoing long-wave radiation, which has been used to…