atmospheric stripping Archives

March 23, 2023March 23, 2023 by Evan Gough

The Discovery of a Hot Neptune that Shouldn’t Exist

exoplanet hot jupiter transiting its star — This artist’s impression shows an ultra-hot exoplanet as it is about to transit in front of its host star. Credit: ESO

1800 light-years away, an unlikely survivor orbits an aged star. This rare planet is called a hot Neptune, and it’s one of only a small handful of hot Neptunes astronomers have found. Hot Neptunes are so close to their stars that the overpowering stellar radiation should’ve stripped away their atmospheres, leaving only a planetary core behind.

But this planet held onto its atmosphere somehow.

June 16, 2020June 16, 2020 by Evan Gough

Newborn Exoplanets can be Completely Stripped of Their Atmosphere by Stars

Artist's conception of exoplanet systems that could be observed by PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO), a European Space Agency telescope. Credit: ESA - C. Carreau

Newborn exoplanets can have a tough life. They may form an atmosphere, but that atmosphere can be doomed. Their stars can emit intense X-ray and UV radiation, stripping away those atmospheres and laying their surfaces bare.

A team of researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics looked at a family of four newborn sibling planets, and tried to understand how their star strips away their gaseous envelopes.