Related papers: Modelling helium in exoplanet atmospheres. A revis…
We are engaged in a comprehensive program to find reliable elemental abundances in and to probe the physical structure of the Orion Nebula, the brightest and best-resolved H II region. In the course of developing a robust extinction…
Atmospheric escape driven by extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation is a critical process shaping the evolution of close-in exoplanets. Recent observations have detected helium triplet absorption in numerous (>20) close-in exoplanets,…
Stellar radiation from X-rays to the visible provides the energy that controls the photochemistry and mass loss from exoplanet atmospheres. The important extreme ultraviolet (EUV) region (10--91.2~nm) is inaccessible and should be computed…
Recent James Webb Space Telescope observations of cool, rocky exoplanets reveal a probable lack of thick atmospheres, suggesting prevalent escape of the secondary atmospheres formed after losing primordial hydrogen. Yet, simulations…
Hydrodynamic outflows, such as those observed escaping close-in gas giant planets, are not isothermal in structure. Their highly ionized nature allows them to cool adiabatically at distances beyond several planetary radii. The contrast…
Energetic particles, in the form of stellar energetic particles and cosmic rays, can lead to disequilibrium chemical effects in exoplanetary atmospheres. In Earth-like atmospheres, energetic particles can drive the formation of prebiotic…
Close-in hot Jupiters are exposed to a tremendous photon flux that ionizes the neutral escaping material from the planet leaving an observable imprint that makes them an interesting laboratory for testing theoretical models. In this work we…
The escape of ionizing radiation from galaxies plays a critical role in the evolution of gas in galaxies, and the heating and ionization history of the intergalactic medium. We present semi-analytic calculations of the escape fraction of…
Iron plays a crucial role in studies of late-type stars. In their atmospheres, Fe I is the minority species and its lines are subject to the departures from LTE. In contrast, one believes that LTE is a realistic approximation for Fe II…
Atmospheric mass loss is thought to induce the bimodality in the small planet population as we observe it today. Observationally, active mass loss can be traced by excess absorption in spectral lines of lighter species, such as the hydrogen…
Exoplanets with substantial Hydrogen/Helium atmospheres have been discovered in abundance, many residing extremely close to their parent stars. The extreme irradiation levels these atmospheres experience causes them to undergo hydrodynamic…
The highly eccentric binary system Eta Carinae shows numerous time-variable emission and absorption features. These observational signatures are the result of interactions between the complex three-dimensional (3D) wind-wind collision…
Intense X-ray and ultraviolet stellar irradiation can heat and inflate the atmospheres of closely orbiting exoplanets, driving mass outflows that may be significant enough to evaporate a sizable fraction of the planet atmosphere over the…
Atmospheric escape is thought to significantly influence the evolution of exoplanets, especially for sub-Jupiter planets on short orbital periods. Theoretical models predict that hydrodynamic escape could erode the atmospheres of such…
The M dwarf GJ 436 hosts a transiting warm Neptune known to experience atmospheric escape. Previous observations revealed the presence of a giant hydrogen exosphere transiting the star for more than 5 h, and absorbing up to 56% of the flux…
The metastable helium line at 1083 nm can be used to probe the extended upper atmospheres of close-in exoplanets and thus provide insight into their atmospheric mass loss, which is likely to be significant in sculpting their population. We…
Sub-Neptunes, the most common planet type, remain poorly understood. Their atmospheres are expected to be diverse, but their compositions are challenging to determine, even with JWST. Here, we present the first JWST spectroscopic study of…
Transit surveys indicate that there is a deficit of Neptune-sized planets on close-in orbits. If this ``Neptune desert' is entirely cleared out by atmospheric mass loss, then planets at its upper edge should only be marginally stable…
Observations of present-day mass-loss rates for close-in transiting exoplanets provide a crucial check on models of planetary evolution. One common approach is to model the planetary absorption signal during the transit in lines like He I…
Escaping exoplanet atmospheres have been observed as deep transit signatures in a few specific spectral lines. Detections have been made in the hydrogen Ly-$\alpha$ line, the metastable helium line at 10830 {\AA} and some UV lines of…