Atmospheric escape from hot Jupiters and sub-Neptunes: Renata Frelikh  (Imperial College London)

Atmospheric escape from hot Jupiters and sub-Neptunes

The atmospheres of close-in exoplanets undergo dramatic mass loss due to heating from extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) and X-ray irradiation leading to hydrodynamic escape. We set the stage for evaluating the effect of radiative cooling on planets experiencing stellar-irradiation-driven atmospheric mass loss. We demonstrate that for hot and warm Jupiters, radiative cooling can act as a substantial energy sink, diverting energy away from powering the outflow. Nevertheless, escape cannot shut off completely for planets between 0.015 and 0.3 AU around solar-type stars. In simulations of H-He mini-Neptunes and super-Earths, the outflows are cooler, permitting molecular species to survive throughout the wind, indicating that molecular cooling could play a crucial role in regulating atmospheric retention on these planets.



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