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Astronomy Tea Talk

Monday, February 7, 2022
4:00pm to 5:00pm
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Online Event
Evaporative Transmission Spectroscopy at Close-in Exoplanet and Exomoon Systems
Apurva Oza, Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech,

Close-in exoplanet and exomoon systems orbiting within << 10 R_Sun of their host stars are expected to experience extreme evaporation. At present, it would appear that thermal outgassing and photoevaporation drive planetary evolution from sub-Neptunes to super-Earths for Sun-like stars, as observed by the California-Kepler survey, valley. This is due to evaporation rates >> 10^6 kg/s (~0.42 M_moon/Gyr) corresponding to factor of two changes in transit radii due to the low-density nature of a H/He envelope. In the absence of a hydrogenated envelope, escape begins to erode a significant quantity of metals from a rocky surface itself, viewable by the technique of evaporative transmission spectroscopy. We describe how NaD2/D1 in particular can begin to geophysically characterize several transiting systems today.

For more information, please email abaker@caltech.edu.