Chthonian planet
Chthonian planets (/ˈkθoʊniən/, sometimes 'cthonian') are a hypothetical class of celestial objects resulting from the stripping away of a gas giant's hydrogen and helium atmosphere and outer layers, which is called hydrodynamic escape. Such atmospheric stripping is a likely result of proximity to a star. The remaining rocky or metallic core would resemble a terrestrial planet in many respects.[1]
Etymology
Chthon (from Greek: Χθών) means "earth". The term chthonian was coined by Hébrard et al. and generally refers to Greek chthonic deities from the infernal underground.
Possible examples
Transit-timing variation measurements indicate, for example, that Kepler-52b, Kepler-52c and Kepler-57b have maximum masses between 30 and 100 times the mass of Earth (although the actual masses could be much lower); with radii about two Earth radii,[2] they might have densities larger than that of an iron planet of the same size. These exoplanets orbit very close to their stars and could be the remnant cores of evaporated gas giants or brown dwarfs. If cores are massive enough they could remain compressed for billions of years despite losing the atmospheric mass.[3][4]
As there is a lack of gaseous "hot-super-Earths" between 2.2 and 3.8 Earth-radii exposed to over 650 Earth incident flux, it is assumed that exoplanets below such radii exposed to such stellar fluxes could have had their envelopes stripped by photoevaporation.[5]
HD 209458 b
HD 209458 b is an example of a gas giant that is in the process of having its atmosphere stripped away, though it will not become a chthonian planet for many billions of years, if ever. A similar case would be Gliese 436b, which has already lost 10% of its atmosphere.[6]
CoRoT-7b
CoRoT-7b is the first exoplanet found that might be chthonian.[7][8] Other researchers dispute this, and conclude CoRoT-7b was always a rocky planet and not the eroded core of a gas or ice giant,[9] due to the young age of the star system.
TOI-849 b
In 2020, a high-density planet more massive than Neptune was found very close to its host star, within the Neptunian desert. This world, TOI-849 b, may very well be a chthonian planet.[10]
See also
References
- ^ Hébrard G., Lecavelier Des Étangs A., Vidal-Madjar A., Désert J.-M., Ferlet R. (2003), Evaporation Rate of Hot Jupiters and Formation of chthonian Planets, Extrasolar Planets: Today and Tomorrow, ASP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 321, held 30 June – 4 July 2003, Institut d'astrophysique de Paris, France. Edited by Jean-Philippe Beaulieu, Alain Lecavelier des Étangs and Caroline Terquem.
- ^ Transit Timing Observations from Kepler: VII. Confirmation of 27 planets in 13 multiplanet systems via Transit Timing Variations and orbital stability, Jason H. Steffen et al, 16 Aug 2012
- ^ Mocquet, A.; Grasset, O. and Sotin, C. (2013) Super-dense remnants of gas giant exoplanets, EPSC Abstracts, Vol. 8, EPSC2013-986-1, European Planetary Science Congress 2013
- ^ Mocquet, A.; Grasset, O.; Sotin, C. (2014). "Very high-density planets: a possible remnant of gas giants". Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A. 372 (2014): 20130164. Bibcode:2014RSPTA.37230164M. doi:10.1098/rsta.2013.0164. PMID 24664925.
- ^ Lundkvist et al. (2016), Hot super-Earths stripped by their host stars, arXiv:1604.05220 [astro-ph.EP]
- ^ "Hubble sees atmosphere being stripped from Neptune-sized exoplanet". Nature. 2015-06-24. Retrieved 2015-11-08.
- ^ "Exoplanets Exposed to the Core". Astrobiology Magazine. 2009-04-25. Archived from the original on 2018-01-07. Retrieved 2018-01-07.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Super-Earth 'began as gas giant'". BBC News. 10 January 2010. Retrieved 2010-01-10.
- ^ Odert, P. (2010). "Thermal mass-loss of exoplanets in close orbits" (PDF). EPSC Abstracts. 5: 582. Bibcode:2010epsc.conf..582O.
- ^ Armstrong DJ, Lopez TA, Zhan Z (June 1, 2020). "A remnant planetary core in the hot-Neptune desert". Nature. 583 (7814): 39–42. arXiv:2003.10314. Bibcode:2020Natur.583...39A. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2421-7. PMID 32612222. S2CID 214612138.
- v
- t
- e
and
types
and
evolution
- Accretion
- Accretion disk
- Asteroid belt
- Circumplanetary disk
- Circumstellar disc
- Circumstellar envelope
- Cosmic dust
- Debris disk
- Detached object
- Disrupted planet
- Excretion disk
- Exozodiacal dust
- Extraterrestrial materials
- Extraterrestrial sample curation
- Giant-impact hypothesis
- Gravitational collapse
- Hills cloud
- Internal structure
- Interplanetary dust cloud
- Interplanetary medium
- Interplanetary space
- Interstellar cloud
- Interstellar dust
- Interstellar medium
- Interstellar space
- Kuiper belt
- List of interstellar and circumstellar molecules
- Merging stars
- Molecular cloud
- Nebular hypothesis
- Oort cloud
- Outer space
- Planetary migration
- Planetary system
- Planetesimal
- Planet formation
- Protoplanetary disk
- Ring system
- Rubble pile
- Sample-return mission
- Scattered disc
- Star formation
- Astrobiology
- Astrooceanography
- Circumstellar habitable zone
- Earth analog
- Extraterrestrial liquid water
- Galactic habitable zone
- Habitability of binary star systems
- Habitability of F-type main-sequence star systems
- Habitability of K-type main-sequence star systems
- Habitability of natural satellites
- Habitability of neutron star systems
- Habitability of red dwarf systems
- Habitability of yellow dwarf systems
- Habitable zone for complex life
- List of potentially habitable exoplanets
- Tholin
- Superhabitable planet
- Exoplanetary systems
- Exoplanets
- Discoveries
- Extremes
- Firsts
- Nearest
- Largest
- Heaviest
- Terrestrial candidates
- Kepler
- 1–500
- 501–1000
- 1001–1500
- 1501–2000
- K2
- Potentially habitable
- Proper names
- Carl Sagan Institute
- Exoplanet naming convention
- Exoplanet phase curves
- Exoplanetary Circumstellar Environments and Disk Explorer
- Extragalactic planet
- Extrasolar planets in fiction
- Geodynamics of terrestrial exoplanets
- Neptunian desert
- Nexus for Exoplanet System Science
- Planets in globular clusters
- Small planet radius gap
- Sudarsky's gas giant classification