2022ApJ...934..137Y -
Astrophys. J., 934, 137 (2022/August-1)
Less Effective Hydrodynamic Escape of H2-H2O Atmospheres on Terrestrial Planets Orbiting Pre-main-sequence M Dwarfs.
YOSHIDA T., TERADA N., IKOMA M. and KURAMOTO K.
Abstract (from CDS):
Terrestrial planets currently in the habitable zones around M dwarfs likely experienced a long-term runaway-greenhouse condition because of a slow decline in host-star luminosity in its pre-main-sequence phase. Accordingly, they might have lost significant portions of their atmospheres including water vapor at high concentration by hydrodynamic escape induced by the strong stellar X-ray and extreme ultraviolet (XUV) irradiation. However, the atmospheric escape rates remain highly uncertain due partly to a lack of understanding of the effect of radiative cooling in the escape outflows. Here we carry out 1D hydrodynamic escape simulations for an H2-H2O atmosphere on a planet with mass of 1M⊕ considering radiative and chemical processes to estimate the atmospheric escape rate and follow the atmospheric evolution during the early runaway-greenhouse phase. We find that the atmospheric escape rate decreases with the basal H2O/H2 ratio due to the energy loss by the radiative cooling of H2O and chemical products such as OH and OH+: the escape rate of H2 becomes one order of magnitude smaller when the basal H2O/H2 = 0.1 than that of the pure hydrogen atmosphere. The timescale for H2 escape exceeds the duration of the early runaway-greenhouse phase, depending on the initial atmospheric amount and composition, indicating that H2 and H2O could be left behind after the end of the runaway-greenhouse phase. Our results suggest that temperate and reducing environments with oceans could be formed on some terrestrial planets around M dwarfs.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
Journal keyword(s):
Exoplanet evolution - Exoplanet atmospheres - Upper atmosphere
Simbad objects:
1
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