Stellar impact on disequilibrium chemistry and observed spectra of hot Jupiter atmospheres

Autor: Denis Shulyak, Nina-Elisabeth Nemec, L. M. Lara, Miriam Rengel
Přispěvatelé: German Research Foundation, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), European Commission
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Stars: activity
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
FOS: Physical sciences
Astrophysics
Stellar classification
01 natural sciences
Spectral line
Atmosphere
Planet
0103 physical sciences
Hot Jupiter
Mixing ratio
Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Planets and satellites: atmospheres
010303 astronomy & astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Physics
numerical [Methods]
Methods: numerical
Computer Science::Information Retrieval
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Exoplanet
Planets and satellites: composition
Stars
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Space and Planetary Science
composition [Planets and satellites]
atmospheres [Planets and satellites]
Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
activity [Stars]
Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Zdroj: Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname
Popis: Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.--Open Access funding provided by Max Planck Society.
Aims. We study the effect of disequilibrium processes (photochemistry and vertical transport) on mixing ratio profiles of neutral species and on the simulated spectra of a hot Jupiter exoplanet that orbits stars of various spectral types. We additionally address the impact of stellar activity that should be present, to various degrees, in all stars with convective envelopes. Methods. We used the VULCAN chemical kinetic code to compute number densities of species in irradiated planetary atmospheres. The temperature-pressure profile of the atmosphere was computed with the HELIOS code. We also utilized the tau-REx forward model to predict the spectra of planets in primary and secondary eclipses. In order to account for the stellar activity, we made use of the observed solar extreme ultraviolet (XUV) spectrum taken from Virtual Planetary Laboratory as a proxy for an active sun-like star. Results. We find large changes in the mixing ratios of most chemical species in planets orbiting A-type stars, which radiate strong XUV flux thereby inducing a very effective photodissociation. For some species, these changes can propagate very deep into the planetary atmosphere to pressures of around 1 bar. To observe disequilibrium chemistry we favor hot Jupiters with temperatures T-eq = 1000 K and ultra-hot Jupiters, with T-eq approximate to 3000 K,which also have temperature inversion in their atmospheres. On the other hand, disequilibrium calculations predict no noticeable changes in spectra of planets with intermediate temperatures. We also show that stellar activity similar to that of the modern Sun drives important changes in mixing ratio profiles of atmospheric species. However, these changes take place at very high atmospheric altitudes and thus do not affect predicted spectra. Finally, we estimate that the effect of disequilibrium chemistry in planets orbiting nearby bright stars could be robustly detected and studied with future missions with spectroscopic capabilities in infrared such as James Webb Space Telescope and ARIEL. © D. Shulyak et al. 2020
We acknowledge the support of the DFG priority program SPP-1992 "Exploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets" (DFG PR 36 24602/41). LML acknowledges the financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the "Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award SEV-2017-0709, and from the research projects ESP2016-76076-R and PGC2018-099425-B-I00. We also acknowledge the use of electronic databases SIMBAD and NASA's ADS.
Databáze: OpenAIRE