Abstract
Whether an exoplanet retains its atmosphere and surface water depends on many factors. I will first describe the two main mass-loss mechanisms for exoplanet atmospheres. The main thermal process is hydrodynamical outflow driven by extreme ultraviolet and x-radiation from the host star that heat and inflate an exoplanet’s exosphere leading to mass loss. Non-thermal mass loss occurs when ions and electrons in the host star’s wind remove neutrals and ions in the exoplanet’s upper atmosphere through charge exchange, ion pick-up, and other processes. Although there are simulations of thermal and non-thermal processes occurring in isolation, these processes can work together to enhance the mass-loss rate. There are, however, many unknowns or poorly known parameters including the exoplanet’s initial water inventory, its orbital migration, the strength of its magnetic field, its outgassing rate, the history of the host star’s UV, EUV and x-radiation, and the present and past flaring and coronal mass ejection (CME) rates. Thus for an exoplanet to be habitable today, it must survive a gauntlet of inadequately known challenges. Latter in the chapter, I describe what the term “habitable zone” is intended to be and include case studies of several exoplanets for which there are estimates of mass loss, surface liquid water, and habitability. Finally, I consider which types of host stars are most likely to support exoplanets that satisfy the wide variety of conditions that appear to be required for habitability.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Airapetian, V.S., Glocer, A., Khazanov, G.V., Loyd, R.O.P., France, K., Sojka, J., Danchi, W.C., Liemohn, M.W.: How hospitable are space weather affected habitable zones? The role of ion escape. Astrophys. J. Lett. 836, L3 (2017)
Anglada-Escudé, G., Amado, P.J., Barnes, J., Berdinas, Z.M., Butler, R.P., Coleman, Gavin A.L., de La Cueva, I., Dreizler, S., Endl, M., et al.: A terrestrial planet candidate in a temperate orbit around Proxima Centauri. Nature 536, 437 (2016)
Bolmont, E., Selsis, F., Owen, J.E., Ribas, I., Raymond, S.N., Leconte, J., Gillon, M.: Water loss from terrestrial planets orbiting ultracool dwarfs: implications for the planets of TRAPPIST-1. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 464, 3728 (2017)
Bourrier, V., Lecavelier des Etangs, A., Ehrenreich, D., Tanaka, Y.A., Vidotto, A.A.: An evaporating planet in the wind: stellar wind interactions with the radiatively braked exosphere of GJ 436 b. Astron. Astrophys. 591, A121 (2016)
Bourrier, V., Ehrenreich, D., Wheatley, P.J., Bolmont, E., Gillon, M., de Wit, J., Burgasser, A.J., Jehin, E., Queloz, D., Triaud, A.H.M.J.: Reconnaissance of the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanet system in the Lyman-α line. Astron. Astrophys. 599, L3 (2017)
Boutle, I.A., Mayne, N.J., Drummond, B., Manners, J., Goyal, J., Hugo L.F., Acreman, D.M., Earnshaw, P.D.: Exploring the climate of Proxima b with the Met Office Unified Model. Astron. Astrophys. 601, 120 (2017)
Chabrier, G., Baraffe, I., Allard, F., Hauschildt, P.H.: Review on low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. arXiv:astro-ph/0509798 (2005)
Chadney, J.M., Galand, M., Unruh, Y.C., Koskinen, T.T., Sanz-Forcada, J.: XUV-driven mass loss from extrasolar giant planets orbiting active stars. Icarus 250, 357 (2015)
Claire, M.W., Sheets, J., Cohen, M., Ribas, I., Meadows, V.S., Catling, D.C.: The evolution of solar flux from 0.1 nm to 160 μm: quantitative estimates for planetary studies. Astrophys. J. 757, 95 (2012)
Cohen, O., Drake, J.J., Glocer, A., Garraffo, C., Poppenhaeger, K., Bell, J.M., Ridley, A.J., Gombosi, T.I.: Magnetospheric structure and atmospheric Joule heating of habitable planets orbiting M-dwarf stars. Astrophys. J. 790, 57 (2014)
Cohen, O., Glocer, A., Garraffa, C., Drake, J.J., Bell, J.M.: Energy dissipation in the upper atmospheres of TRAPPIST-1 planets. Astrophys. J. Lett. 856, L11 (2018)
Cuntz, M., Guinan, E.F.: About exobiology: the case for dwarf K stars. Astrophys. J. 827, 79 (2016)
Deighan, J., Jain, S.K., Chaffin, M.S., Fang, X., Halekas, J.S., Clarke, J.T., Schneider, N.M., Stewart, A.I.F., Chaufray, J.-Y., Evans, J. S., et al.: Discovery of a proton aurora at Mars. Nat. Astron. 2, 802 (2018)
Dong, C., Lingam, M., Ma, Y., Cohen, O.: Is Proxima Centauri b habitable? A study of atmospheric loss. Astrophys. J. Lett. 837, L26 (2017)
Dong, C., Lee, Y., Ma, Y., Lingam, M., Bougher, S., Luhmann, J., Curry, S., Toth, G., Nagy, A.: Modeling Martian atmospheric losses over time: implications for exoplanetary climate evolution and habitability. Astrophys. J. Lett. 859, L14 (2018)
Dressing, C.D., Vanderburg, A., Schlieder, J.E., Crossfield, I.J.M., Knutson, H.A., Newton, E.R., Ciardi, D.R., Fulton, B.J., Gonzales, E.J., et al.: Characterizing K2 candidate planetary systems orbiting low-mass stars. II. Planetary systems observed during campaigns 1–7. Astron. J. 154, 207 (2017)
Dubinin, E., Fraenz, M., Pätzold, M., McFadden, J., Mahaffy, P.R., Eparvier, F., Halekas, J.S., Connerney, J.E.P., Brain, D., et al.: Effects of solar irradiance on the upper ionosphere and oxygen ion escape at Mars: MAVEN observations. J. Geophys. Res. Space Phys. 122, 7142 (2017)
Egan, H., Ma, Y., Dong, C., Modolo, R., Jarvinen, R., Bougher, S., Halekas, J., Brain, D., Mcfadden, J., Connerney, J., Mitchell, D., Jakosky, B.: Comparison of global Martian plasma models in the context of MAVEN observations. J. Geophys. Res. Space Phys. 123, 3714 (2018)
Ehrenreich, D., Désert, J.-M.: Mass-loss rates for transiting exoplanets. Astron. Astrophys. 529, A136 (2011)
Ehrenreich, D., Bourrier, V., Wheatley, P.J., Lecavelier des Etangs, A., Hébrard, G., Udry, S., Bonfils, X., Delfosse, X., Désert, J.-M., Sing, D.K., Vidal-Madjar, A.: A giant comet-like cloud of hydrogen escaping the warm Neptune-mass exoplanet GJ 436b. Nature 522, 459 (2015)
Erkaev, N.V., Lammer, H., Odert, P., Kulikov, Y.N., Kislyakova, K.G.: Extreme hydrodynamic atmospheric loss near the critical thermal escape regime. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 448, 1916 (2015)
Erkaev, N.V., Lammer, H., Odert, P., Kislyakova, K.G., Johnstone, C.P., Güdel, M., Khodachenko, M.L.: EUV-driven mass-loss of protoplanetary cores with hydrogen-dominated atmospheres: the influences of ionization and orbital distance. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 460, 1300 (2016)
Feng, F., Tuomi, M., Jones, H.R.A., Barnes, J., Anglada-Escudé, G., Vogt, S.S., Butler, R.P.: Color difference makes a difference: four planet candidates around τ Ceti. Astron. J. 154, 135 (2017)
Fossati, L., Erkaev, N.V., Lammer, H., Cubillos, P.E., Odert, P., Juvan, I., Kislyakova, K.G., Lendl, M., Kubyshkina, D., Bauer, S.J.: Aeronomical constraints to the minimum mass and maximum radius of hot low-mass planets. Astron. Astrophys. 598, 90 (2017)
France, K., Loyd, R.O.P., Youngblood, A., Brown, A., Schneider, P.C., Hawley, S.L., Froning, C.S., Linsky, J.L., Roberge, A., et al.: The muscles treasury survey I: motivation and overview. Astrophys. J. 820, 89 (2016)
Garraffo, C., Drake, J.J., Cohen, O.: The space weather of Proxima Centauri b. Astrophys. J. Lett. 833, L4 (2016)
Garraffo, C., Drake, J.J., Cohen, O., Alvarado-Gómez, J.D., Moschou, S.P.: The threatening magnetic and plasma environment of the TRAPPIST-1 planets. Astrophys. J. Lett. 843, L33 (2017)
Garcia-Sage, Glocer, A., Drake, J.J., Gronoff, G., Cohen, O.: On the magnetic protection of the atmosphere of Proxima Centauri b. Astrophys. J. Lett. 844, L13 (2017)
Gillon, M., Jehin, E., Lederer, S.M., Delrez, L., de Wit, J., Burdanov, A., Van Grootel, V., Burgasser, A.J., Triaud, A.H.M.J., et al.: Temperate Earth-sized planets transiting a nearby ultracool dwarf star. Nature 533, 221 (2016)
Gillon, M., Triaud, A.H.M.J., Demory, B.-O., Jehin, E., Agol, E., Deck, K.M., Lederer, S.M., de Wit, J., Burdanov, A., Ingalls, J.G., et al.: Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. Nature 542, 456 (2017)
Haqq-Misra, J., Kopparapu, R.Kumar, Batalha, N.E., Harman, C.E., Kasting, J.F.: Limit cycles can reduce the width of the habitable zone. Astrophys. J. 827, 120 (2016)
Jenkins, J.M., Twicken, J.D., Batalha, N.M., Caldwell, D.A., Cochran, W.D., Endl, M., Latham, D.W., Esquerdo, G.A.: Discovery and validation of Kepler-452b: a 1.6 R Earth super Earth exoplanet in the habitable zone of a G2 star. Astron. J. 150, 56 (2015)
Jakosky, B.M., Slipski, M., Benna, M., Mahaffy, P., Elrod, M., Yelle, R., Stone, S., Alsaeed, N.: Mars’ atmospheric history derived from upper-atmosphere measurements of 38Ar/36Ar. Science 355, 1408 (2017)
Jakosky, B.M., Brain, D., Chaffin, M., Curry, S., Deighan, J., Grebowsky, J., Halekas, J., Leblanc, F., Lillis, R., Luhmann, J.G., et al.: Loss of the Martian atmosphere to space: present-day loss rates determined from MAVEN observations and integrated loss through time. Icarus 315, 146 (2018)
Kaltenegger, L.: How to characterize habitable worlds and signs of life. Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 55, 433 (2017)
Kasting, J.F., Whitmire, D.P., Reynolds, R.T.: Habitable zones around main sequence stars. Icarus 101, 108 (1993)
Kasting, J.F., Kopparapu, R., Ramirez, R.M., Harman, C.E.: Remote life-detection criteria, habitable zone boundaries, and the frequency of Earth-like planets around M and late K stars. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 111, 12641 (2014)
Khodachenko, M.L., Lammer, H., Lichtenegger, H.I.M., Langmayr, D., Erkaev, N.V., Grießmeier, J.-M., Leitner, M., Penz, T., Biernat, H.K., et al.: Mass loss of “Hot Jupiters” implications for CoRoT discoveries. Part I: the importance of magnetospheric protection of a planet against ion loss caused by coronal mass ejections. Plan. Space Sci. 55, 631 (2007)
Khodachenko, M.L., Shaikhislamov, I.F., Lammer, H., Prokopov, P.A.: Atmosphere expansion and mass loss of close-orbit giant exoplanets heated by stellar XUV. II. Effects of planetary magnetic field; structuring of inner magnetosphere. Astrophys. J. 813, 50 (2015)
Kim, Y.-C., Demarque, P., Yi, S.K., Alexander, D.R.: The Y2 isochrones for α-element enhanced mixtures. Astrophys. J. Suppl. 143, 499 (2002)
King, G.W., Wheatley, P.J., Salz, M., Bourrier, V., Czesla, S., Ehrenreich, D., Kirk, J., Lecavelier des Etangs, A., Louden, T., Schmitt, J., Schneider, P.C.: The XUV environments of exoplanets from Jupiter-size to super-Earth. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 478, 1193 (2018)
Kislyakova, K.G., Johnstone, C.P., Odert, P., Erkaev, N.V., Lammer, H., Lüftinger, T., Holmström, M., Khodachenko, M.L., Güdel, M.: Stellar wind interaction and pick-up ion escape of the Kepler-11 “super-Earths”. Astron. Astrophys. 562, A116 (2014)
Kopparapu, R.K., Ramirez, R., Kasting, J.F., Eymet, V., Robinson, T.D., Mahadevan, S., Terrien, R.C., Domagal-Goldman, S., Meadows, V., Deshpande, R.: Habitable zones around main-sequence stars: new estimates. Astrophys. J. 765, 131 (2013)
Kopparapu, R.K., Ramirez, R.M., SchottelKotte, J., Kasting, J.F., Domagal-Goldman, S., Eymet, V.: Habitable zones around main-sequence stars: dependence on planetary mass. Astrophys. J. Lett. 787, L29 (2014)
Kopparapu, R., Wolf, E.T., Haqq-Misra, J., Yang, J., Kasting, J.F., Meadows, V., Terrien, R., Mahadevan, S.: The inner edge of the habitable zone for synchronously rotating planets around low-mass stars using general circulation models. Astrophys. J. 819, 84 (2016)
Kroupa, P.: On the variation of the initial mass function. Mon. Not. R. Astrtron. Soc. 322, 231 (2001)
Kubyshkina, D., Lendl, M., Fossati, L., Cubillos, P.E. Lammer, H., Erkaev, N.V., Johnstone, C.P.: Young planets under extreme UV irradiation. I. Upper atmosphere modelling of the young exoplanet K2-33b. Astron. Astrophys. 612, 25 (2018)
Lammer, H., Lichtenegger, H.I.M., Kolb, C., Ribas, I., Guinan, E.F., Abart, R., Bauer, S.J.: Loss of water from Mars: implications for the oxidation of the soil. Icarus, 165, 9 (2003)
Lammer, H., Stökl, A., Erkaev, N.V., Dorfi, E.A., Odert, P., Güdel, M., Kulikov, Y. N., Kislyakova, K.G., Leitzinger, M.: Origin and loss of nebula-captured hydrogen envelopes from ‘sub’- to ‘super-Earths’ in the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 439, 3225 (2014)
Lammer, H., Zerkle, A.L., Gebauer, S., Tosi, N., Noack, L., Scherf, M., Pilat-Lohinger, E., Güdel, M., Grenfell, J.L., Godolt, M., Nikolaou, A.: Origin and evolution of the atmospheres of early Venus, Earth and Mars. Astron. Astrophys. Rev. 26, 2 (2018)
Lanza, A.F.: Star-planet magnetic interaction and evaporation of planetary atmospheres. Astron. Astrophys. 557, A31 (2013)
Lavie, B., Ehrenreich, D., Bourrier, V., Lecavelier des Etangs, A., Vidal-Madjar, A., Delfosse, X., Gracia Berna, A., Heng, K., Thomas, N., Udry, S., Wheatley, P.J.: The long egress of GJ 436b’s giant exosphere. Astron. Astrophys. 605, L7 (2017)
Lecavelier des Etangs, A.: A diagram to determine the evaporation status of extrasolar planets. Astron. Astrophys. 461, 1185 (2007)
Lingam, M., Loeb, A.: Reduced diversity of life around Proxima Centauri and TRAPPIST-1. Astrophys. J. Lett. 846, L21 (2017)
Lingam, M., Loeb, A.: Physical constraints on the likelihood of life on exoplanets. Int. J. Astrobiology 17, 116 (2018)
Linsky, J.L., Yang, H., France, K., Froning, C.S., Green, J.C., Stocke, J.T., Osterman, S.N.: Observations of mass loss from the transiting exoplanet HD 209458b. Astrophys. J. 717, 1291 (2010)
Linsky, J.L., Fontenla, J., France, K.: The intrinsic extreme ultraviolet fluxes of F5 V to M5 V stars. Astrophys. J. 780, 61 (2014)
Loyd, R.O.P., France, K., Youngblood, A., Schneider, C., Brown, A., Hu, R., Linsky, J., Froning, C.S., Redfield, S., Rugheimer, S., Tian, F.: The MUSCLES treasury survey III: X-ray to infrared spectra of 11 M and K stars hosting planets. Astrophys. J. 824, 102 (2016)
Luger, R., Sestovic, M., Kruse, E., Grimm, S.L., Demory, B.-O., Agol, E., Bolmont, E., Fabrycky, D., Fernandes, C.S., et al.: A seven-planet resonant chain in TRAPPIST-1. Nat. Astron. 1, 129 (2017)
Meadows, V.S., Arney, G.N., Schwieterman, E.W, Lustig-Yaeger, J., Lincowski, A.P., Robinson, T., Domagal-Goldman, S.D., Deitrick, R., Barnes, R.K., et al.: The habitability of Proxima Centauri b: environmental states and observational discriminants. Astrobiology 18, 133 (2018)
Murray-Clay, R.A., Chiang, E.I., Murray, N.: Atmospheric escape from hot Jupiters. Astrophys. J. 693, 23 (2009)
O’Malley-James, J.T., Kaltenegger, L.: UV surface habitability of the TRAPPIST-1 system. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. Lett. 469, L260 (2017)
Owen, J.E., Alvarez, M.A.: UV driven evaporation of close-in planets: Energy-limited, recombination-limited, and photon-limited Flows. Astrophys. J. 816, 340 (2016)
Owen, J.E., Jackson, A.P.: Planetary evaporation by UV and X-ray radiation: basic hydrodynamics. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 425, 2531 (2012)
Owen, J.E., Wu, Y.: Atmospheres of low-mass planets: the “boil-off”. Astrophys. J. 817, 1070 (2016)
Pepe, F., Lovis, C., Ségransan, D., Benz, W., Bouchy, F., Dumusque, X., Mayor, M., Queloz, D., Santos, N.C., Udry, S.: The HARPS search for Earth-like planets in the habitable zone. I. Very low-mass planets around HD 20794, HD 85512, and HD 192310. Astron. Astrophys. 534, A58 (2011)
Quintana, E.V., Barclay, T., Raymond, S.N., Rowe, J.F., Bolmont, E., Caldwell, D.A., Howell, S.B., Kane, S.R., et al.: An Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of a cool star. Science 344, 277 (2014)
Ribas, I.: The Sun and stars as the primary energy input in planetary atmospheres. In: Kosovichev, A.G., Andrei, A.H., Rozelot, J.-P. (eds.) Solar and Stellar Variability: Impact on Earth and Planets. Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 264 (2009)
Ribas, I., Bolmont, E., Selsis, F., Reiners, A., Leconte, J., Raymond, S.N., Engle, S.G., Guinan, E.F., Morin, J.: The habitability of Proxima Centauri b. I. Irradiation, rotation and volatile inventory from formation to the present. Astron. Astrophys. 596, A111 (2016)
Ribas, I., Gregg, M.D., Boyajian, T.S., Bolmont, E.: The full spectral radiative properties of Proxima Centauri. Astron. Astrophys. 603, 58 (2017)
Sagan, C., Mullen, G.: Earth and Mars: evolution of atmospheres and surface temperatures. Science 177, 52 (1972)
Salz, M., Schneider, P.C., Czesla, S., Schmitt, J.H.M.M.: Energy-limited escape revised. The transition from strong planetary winds to stable thermospheres. Astron. Astrophys. 585, L2 (2016)
See, V., Jardine, M., Vidotto, A.A., Petit, P., Marsden, S.C., Jeffers, S.V., do Nascimento, J.D.: The effects of stellar winds on the magnetospheres and potential habitability of exoplanets. Astron. Astrophys. 570, A99 (2014)
Silva, L., Vladilo, G., Murante, G., Provenzale, A.: Quantitative estimates of the surface habitability of Kepler-452b. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 470, 2270 (2017)
Tuomi, M., Anglada-Escudé, G., Gerlach, E., Jones, H.R.A., Reiners, A., Rivera, E.J., Vogt, S.S., Butler, R.P.: Habitable-zone super-Earth candidate in a six-planet system around the K2.5V star HD 40307. Astron. Astrophys. 549, A48 (2013)
Vidotto, A.A., Jardine, M., Opher, M., Donati, J.F., Gombosi, T.I.: Powerful winds from low-mass stars: V374 Peg. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 412, 351 (2011)
Vidal-Madjar, A., Lecavelier des Etangs, A., Désert, J.-M., Ballester, G.E., Ferlet, R., Hébrard, G., Mayor, M.: An extended upper atmosphere around the extrasolar planet HD 209458b. Nature 422, 143 (2003)
Watson, A.J., Donahue, T.M., Walker, J.C.G.: The dynamics of a rapidly escaping atmosphere - Applications to the evolution of Earth and Venus. Icarus 48, 150 (1981)
Wheatley, P.J., Louden, T., Bourrier, V., Ehrenreich, D., Gillon, M.: Strong XUV irradiation of the Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting the ultracool dwarf TRAPPIST-1. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. Lett. 465, L74 (2017)
Wolf, E.T.: Assessing the habitability of the TRAPPIST-1 system Using a 3D climate model. Astrophys. J. Lett. 839, L1 (2017)
Wolf, E.T.: Erratum: “Assessing the habitability of the TRAPPIST-1 system using a 3D climate model”. Astrophys. J. Lett. 855, L14 (2018)
Wordsworth, R.D.: The climate of early Mars. Ann. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 44, 381 (2016)
Yi, S.K., Kim, Y.-C., Demarque, P.: The Y2 stellar evolutionary track. Astrophys. J. Suppl. 144, 259 (2003)
Youngblood, A., France, K., Loyd, R.O.P., Brown, A., Mason, J.P., Schneider, P.C., Tilley, M.A., Berta-Thompson, Z.K., Buccino, A., Froning, C.S., et al.: The MUSCLES tresury survey IV. Scaling relations for ultraviolet Ca II, and energetic particle fluxes from M dwarfs. Astrophys. J. 843, 31 (2017)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Linsky, J. (2019). Host Star Driven Exoplanet Mass Loss and Possible Surface Water. In: Host Stars and their Effects on Exoplanet Atmospheres . Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 955. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11452-7_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11452-7_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-11451-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-11452-7
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)