Vaporization of the Earth: Application to Exoplanet Atmospheres

Schaefer, Laura; Lodders, K.; Fegley, B.

doi:10.1088/0004-637x/755/1/41

Cited by 152 publications

(192 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Stellar radiation heats the planetary surface to a temperature exceeding 2000 K, which causes the solid surface to vaporise, creating a metal-rich atmosphere (as has been modelled in detail for super-Earths; Schaefer & Fegley 2009;Miguel et al 2011;Schaefer et al 2012). This atmosphere is hot and expands into the open space around the planet, driving a "Parker-type" thermal wind (Rappaport et al 2012).…”

Section: Evaporating Rocky Exoplanetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dusty tails of evaporating exoplanets

Lieshout

Min

Dominik

et al. 2016

A&A

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Context. Evaporating rocky exoplanets, such as KIC 12557548b, eject large amounts of dust, which can trail the planet in a comet-like tail. When such objects occult their host star, the resulting transit signal contains information about the dust in the tail. Aims. We aim to use the detailed shape of the Kepler light curve of KIC 12557548b to constrain the size and composition of the dust grains that make up the tail, as well as the mass loss rate of the planet. Methods. Using a self-consistent numerical model of the dust dynamics and sublimation, we calculated the shape of the tail by following dust grains from their ejection from the planet to their destruction due to sublimation. From this dust cloud shape, we generated synthetic light curves (incorporating the effects of extinction and angle-dependent scattering), which were then compared with the phase-folded Kepler light curve. We explored the free-parameter space thoroughly using a Markov chain Monte Carlo method. Results. Our physics-based model is capable of reproducing the observed light curve in detail. Good fits are found for initial grain sizes between 0.2 and 5.6 µm and dust mass loss rates of 0.6 to 15.6 M ⊕ Gyr −1 (2σ ranges). We find that only certain combinations of material parameters yield the correct tail length. These constraints are consistent with dust made of corundum (Al 2 O 3 ), but do not agree with a range of carbonaceous, silicate, or iron compositions. Conclusions. Using a detailed, physically motivated model, it is possible to constrain the composition of the dust in the tails of evaporating rocky exoplanets. This provides a unique opportunity to probe to interior composition of the smallest known exoplanets.

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Section: Evaporating Rocky Exoplanetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dusty tails of evaporating exoplanets

Lieshout

Min

Dominik

et al. 2016

A&A

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“…More than 30 super-Earths have been discovered and the most interesting objects are rocky planets such as CoRoT-7b [18], which has an equilibrium temperature of 1810 K [14]. Schaefer et al [14] have calculated the chemical equilibrium composition of super-Earths with temperatures in the range of 500-4000 K based on the vaporization of silicate rocks similar to those of the Earth's continental crust and bulk silicate Earth.…”

Section: Spectroscopic Requirementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Schaefer et al [14] have calculated the chemical equilibrium composition of super-Earths with temperatures in the range of 500-4000 K based on the vaporization of silicate rocks similar to those of the Earth's continental crust and bulk silicate Earth. The composition of the atmosphere at a pressure of 100 bar is presented as figure 3 for bulk silicate Earth.…”

Section: Spectroscopic Requirementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many of them have very short orbital periods like hot Jupiters and are also hot because of proximity to their parent star. For example, GJ 1214b has a mass 6.55 times that of the Earth, a density of 1.88 g cm −3 and an estimated equilibrium surface temperature of 555 K; Kepler10b has a mass 4.54 times that of the Earth, a density of 8 [14]. The observation of super-Earths was a surprise (at least to planet formation modellers) because rocky planets close to the parent star were predicted to be smaller than the Earth [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Molecular opacities for exoplanets

Bernath

2014

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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Spectroscopic observations of exoplanets are now possible by transit methods and direct emission. Spectroscopic requirements for exoplanets are reviewed based on existing measurements and model predictions for hot Jupiters and super-Earths. Molecular opacities needed to simulate astronomical observations can be obtained from laboratory measurements, ab initio calculations or a combination of the two approaches. This discussion article focuses mainly on laboratory measurements of hot molecules as needed for exoplanet spectroscopy.

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“…Theoretical studies have proposed possible formation mechanisms for these planets (Leitzinger et al 2011), compositions for their hot atmospheres (Castan & Menou 2011;Schaefer et al 2012) and their possible spectroscopic signatures (Ito et al 2015). They are considered important targets for space telescopes wishing to perform spectroscopic characterisation of their atmospheres (Tinetti et al 2012;Samuel et al 2014;Tinetti & et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

ExoMol molecular line lists – XIII. The spectrum of CaO

Yurchenko

Blissett

Asari

et al. 2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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An accurate line list for calcium oxide is presented covering transitions between all bound ro-vibronic levels from the five lowest electronic states3 Π, and b 3 Σ + . The ro-vibronic energies and corresponding wavefunctionts were obtained by solving the fully coupled Schrödinger equation. Ab initio potential energy, spin-orbit, and electronic angular momentum curves were refined by fitting to the experimental frequencies and experimentally derived energies available in the literature. Using our refined model we could (i) reassign the vibronic states for a large portion of the experimentally derived energies [van Groenendael A., Tudorie M., Focsa C., Pinchemel B., Bernath P. F., 2005, J. Mol. Spectrosc., 234, 255], (ii) extended this list of energies to J = 79 − 118 and (iii) suggest a new description of the resonances from the A 1 Σ + -X 1 Σ + system. We used high level ab initio electric dipole moments reported previously [Khalil H., Brites V., Le Quere F., Leonard C., 2011, Chem. Phys., 386, 50] to compute the Einstein A coefficients. Our work is the first fully coupled description of this system. Our line list is the most complete catalogue of spectroscopic transitions available for 40 Ca 16 O and is applicable for temperatures up to at least 5000 K. CaO has yet to be observed astronomically but its transitions are characterised by being particularly strong which should facilitate its detection. The CaO line list is made available in an electronic form as supplementary data to this article and at www.exomol.com.

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Vaporization of the Earth: Application to Exoplanet Atmospheres

Cited by 152 publications

References 57 publications

Dusty tails of evaporating exoplanets

Dusty tails of evaporating exoplanets

Molecular opacities for exoplanets

ExoMol molecular line lists – XIII. The spectrum of CaO

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