A Framework for Thermal Atmospheric Escape from Extrasolar Planets

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award funds work to study the physical and chemical processes involved in extrasolar planets, which are planets that orbit other stars. The PI will focus on planets that are so close to their host star that much of their atmospheres are being blasted away by the star?s heat. The PI will also conduct public outreach, write briefs on exoplanet research for high school students, and train and mentor a graduate student in research. The bulk of this work focuses on thermal atmospheric escape that is driven by external irradiation. The PI and her team will generate a flexible framework for modeling thermal atmospheric escape over a range of planetary masses, radii, and environments. The researchers will then use this framework to generate easy-to-use expressions for escape from hydrogen-dominated atmospheres. These expressions will allow other researchers to translate the planetary and stellar properties of their favorite systems into (1) the physical regime in which atmospheric mass loss occurs, and (2) the mass-loss rate in that regime. This work will be accomplished through the expansion and application of an algorithm, created by the PI, to estimate thermal escape rates.