Stellar wind interaction and pick-up ion escape of the Kepler-11 "super-Earths"

Abstract

We study the interactions between stellar wind and the extended hydrogen-dominated upper atmospheres of planets and the resulting escape of planetary pick-up ions from the 5 "super-Earths" in the compact Kepler-11 system and compare the escape rates with the efficiency of the thermal escape of neutral hydrogen atoms. Assuming the stellar wind of Kepler-11 is similar to the solar wind, we use a polytropic 1D hydrodynamic wind model to estimate the wind properties at the planetary orbits. We apply a Direct Simulation Monte Carlo Model to model the hydrogen coronae and the stellar wind plasma interaction around Kepler-11b-f within a realistic expected heating efficiency range of 15-40%. The same model is used to estimate the ion pick-up escape from the XUV heated and hydrodynamically extended upper atmospheres of Kepler-11b-f. From the interaction model we study the influence of possible magnetic moments, calculate the charge exchange and photoionization production rates of planetary ions and estimate the loss rates of pick-up H+ ions for all five planets. We compare the results between the five "super-Earths" and in a more general sense also with the thermal escape rates of the neutral planetary hydrogen atoms. Our results show that for all Kepler-11b-f exoplanets, a huge neutral hydrogen corona is formed around the planet. The non-symmetric form of the corona changes from planet to planet and is defined mostly by radiation pressure and gravitational effects. Non-thermal escape rates of pick-up ionized hydrogen atoms for Kepler-11 "super-Earths" vary between approximately 6.4e30 1/s and 4.1e31 1/s depending on the planet's orbital location and assumed heating efficiency. These values correspond to non-thermal mass loss rates of approximately 1.07e7 g/s and 6.8e7 g/s respectively, which is a few percent of the thermal escape rates.

8 pages, 3 figures, accepted to A&A

References in corpus (5)

• KEPLER's First Rocky Planet: Kepler-10b
• Roche lobe effects on the atmospheric loss of "Hot Jupiters"
• Energetic neutral atoms as the explanation for the high velocity hydrogen around HD 209458b
• Probing the Blow-Off Criteria of Hydrogen-Rich "Super-Earths"
• Survival probability and energy modification of hydrogen Energetic Neutral Atoms on their way from the termination shock to Earth orbit

Cited by in corpus (53)

• The Extreme Ultraviolet and X-Ray Sun in Time: High-Energy Evolutionary Tracks of a Solar-Like Star
• Impact of Space Weather on Climate and Habitability of Terrestrial Type Exoplanets
• Stellar Winds on the Main-Sequence II: the Evolution of Rotation and Winds
• Partially Ionized Plasmas in Astrophysics
• An evaporating planet in the wind: stellar wind interactions with the radiatively braked exosphere of GJ436 b
• Habitable Evaporated Cores: Transforming Mini-Neptunes into Super-Earths in the Habitable Zones of M Dwarfs
• Is Proxima Centauri b habitable? -- A study of atmospheric loss
• Magnetic moment and plasma environment of HD 209458b as determined from Ly$\alpha$ observations
• The Evolution of Stellar Rotation and the hydrogen atmospheres of habitable-zone Terrestrial Planets
• A grid of upper atmosphere models for 1--40 MEARTH planets: application to CoRoT-7 b and HD219134 b,c
• Atmospheric Escape Processes and Planetary Atmospheric Evolution
• Heating efficiency in hydrogen-dominated upper atmospheres
• On the environment surrounding close-in exoplanets
• Atmosphere Expansion and Mass Loss of Close-Orbit Giant Exoplanets heated by Stellar XUV. II. Effects of Planetary Magnetic Field, Structuring of inner Magnetosphere
• Stellar Winds on the Main-Sequence I: Wind Model
• Atmospheric Regimes and Trends on Exoplanets and Brown Dwarfs
• The Upper Atmospheres of Terrestrial Planets: Carbon Dioxide Cooling and the Earth's Thermospheric Evolution
• Atmosphere expansion and mass loss of close-orbit giant exoplanets heated by stellar XUV: I. Modeling of hydrodynamic escape of upper atmospheric material
• Stellar Coronal Mass Ejections I. Estimating occurrence frequencies and mass-loss rates
• Extreme hydrodynamic losses of Earth-like atmospheres in the habitable zones of very active stars
• The Interaction of Venus-like, M-dwarf Planets with the Stellar Wind of Their Host Star
• Hydrodynamic simulations of captured protoatmospheres around Earth-like planets
• Hydrodynamic escape of water vapor atmospheres near very active stars
• Two regimes of interaction of a Hot Jupiter's escaping atmosphere with the stellar wind and generation of energized atomic hydrogen corona
• Physical constraints for the evolution of life on exoplanets
• Evolution of atmospheric escape in close-in giant planets and their associated Ly$\alpha$ and H$\alpha$ transit predictions
• A planetary system with two transiting mini-Neptunes near the radius valley transition around the bright M dwarf TOI-776
• Effects of the stellar wind on the Ly-alpha transit of close-in planets
• The influence of the Extreme Ultraviolet spectral energy distribution on the structure and composition of the upper atmosphere of exoplanets
• The Kepler-11 system: evolution of the stellar high-energy emission and {initial planetary} atmospheric mass fractions
• The Effects of Magnetic Fields on Observational Signatures of Atmospheric Escape in Exoplanets: Double Tail Structures
• Solar XUV and ENA-driven water loss from early Venus' steam atmosphere
• Effect of stellar wind induced magnetic fields on planetary obstacles of non-magnetized hot Jupiters
• Young planets under extreme UV irradiation. I. Upper atmosphere modelling of the young exoplanet K2-33b
• The solar wind from a stellar perspective: how do low-resolution data impact the determination of wind properties?
• A Lyman-alpha transit left undetected: the environment and atmospheric behavior of K2-25b
• Space Weather-driven Variations in Ly$\alpha$ Absorption Signatures of Exoplanet Atmospheric Escape: MHD Simulations and the Case of AU Mic b
• Transit Ly-$\alpha$ signatures of terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of M dwarfs
• Evolution of the Earth's Polar Outflow From Mid-Archean to Present
• Numerical quantification of the wind properties of cool main sequence stars
• Colliding Winds in Low-Mass Binary Star Systems: wind interactions and implications for habitable planets
• The Space Environment and Atmospheric Joule Heating of the Habitable Zone Exoplanet TOI700-d
• Stellar activity and planetary atmosphere evolution in tight binary star systems
• Non-thermal emission from the interaction of magnetized exoplanets with the wind of their host star
• Phase Curves of the Kepler-11 Multi-Planet System
• Orbital Migration through Atmospheric Mass Loss
• Exosphere Modeling of Proxima b: A Case Study of Photochemical Escape with a Venus-like Atmosphere
• Non-thermal motions and atmospheric heating of cool stars
• Evolution of Earth-like extended exospheres orbiting solar-like stars
• NIRwave: A wave-turbulence-driven solar wind model constrained by PSP observations
• X-ray irradiation of three planets around Hyades star K2-136
• Corotating Interaction Regions (CIRs): evolution over a solar lifetime
• Star-planet magnetic interactions in photoevaporating exoplanets: enhanced power due to atmospheric escape