Atmospheric escape from hot Jupiters
Open accessAbstract
Photoionization heating from ultraviolet (UV) radiation incidents on the atmospheres of hot Jupiters may drive planetary mass loss. Observations of stellar Lyman-α (Lyα) absorption have suggested that the hot Jupiter HD 209458b is losing atomic hydrogen. We construct a model of escape that includes realistic heating and cooling, ionization balance, tidal gravity, and pressure confinement by the host star wind. We show that mass loss takes the form of a hydrodynamic (Parker) wind, emitted from the planet's dayside during lulls in the stellar wind. When dayside winds are suppressed by the confining action of the stellar wind, nightside winds might pick up if there is sufficient horizontal transport of heat. A hot Jupiter loses mass at maximum rates of ∼2 × 10 12 g s −1 during its host star's pre-main-sequence phase and ∼2 × 10 10 g s −1 during the star's main-sequence lifetime, for total maximum losses of ∼0.06% and ∼0.6% of the planet's mass, respectively. For UV fluxes F UV ≲ 10 4 erg cm −2 s −1 , the mass-loss rate is approximately energy limited and scales as . For larger UV fluxes, such as those typical of T Tauri stars, radiative losses and plasma recombination force to increase more slowly as F 0.6 UV . Dayside winds are quenched during the T Tauri phase because of confinement by overwhelming stellar wind pressure. During this early stage, nightside winds can still blow if the planet resides outside the stellar Alfvén radius; otherwise, even nightside winds are stifled by stellar magnetic pressure, and mass loss is restricted to polar regions. We conclude that while UV radiation can indeed drive winds from hot Jupiters, such winds cannot significantly alter planetary masses during any evolutionary stage. They can, however, produce observable signatures. Candidates for explaining why the Lyman-α photons of HD 209458 are absorbed at Doppler-shifted velocities of ±100 km s −1 include charge-exchange in the shock between the planetary and stellar winds.
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For high XUV fluxes, the thermosphere can be heated to high temperatures and the upper atmosphere expands efficiently so that losses cause a large-scale outward flow, and adiabatic cooling counters the strong heating to some extent.
“For high XUV fluxes the thermosphere can be heated to high temperatures and the upper atmosphere starts to expand very efficiently so that losses at the exobase cause a large scale outward flow of material, and the resulting adiabatic cooling to some extent counters the strong heating (Tian et al. 2005; Tian et al. 2008; Murray-Clay et al. 2009).”
From The young Sun's XUV-activity as a constraint for lower CO2-limits in the Earth's Archean atmosphere (2021) · cites this paper as Murray-Clay et al. 2009
Section 2.3.2 (page unavailable) reports that high UV flux drives a hot transonic wind and that expansion (PdV work) offsets some photoionization heating. It does not describe losses at the exobase as the cause of the outward flow; the paper attributes the wind to UV heating. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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- Authors
- Murray-Clay, R. A., Chiang, E. I., & Murray, N.
- Affiliations
- Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Murray-Clay, Ruth A.
- Murray, Norman
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2009-02-27
- Volume
- 693
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 23-42
- ISSN
- 0004-637X (ISSN-L)
- 1538-4357
- OpenAlex
- W1974543936
- Cited by
- 723
- References
- 64
- Citations by year
- 2026: 34 · 2025: 46 · 2024: 50 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 48 · 2020: 55 · 2019: 48 · 2018: 70 · 2017: 40 · 2016: 42 · 2015: 33 · 2014: 35 · 2013: 40 · 2012: 25
- FWCI
- 14.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The Astrophysical Journal (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astro and Planetary Science
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
- Keywords
- hot Jupiters, atmospheric escape, photoionization heating, HD 209458b, Lyman-alpha absorption, planetary mass loss, T Tauri stars, Alfvén radius, charge exchange, shock, ultraviolet radiation, ionization equilibrium
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