Catastrophically evaporating planet

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An artistic rendering of Kepler-1520b orbiting its host star. The planet is an example of a catastrophically evaporating planet.

A catastrophically evaporating planet or disintegrating planet is a type of rocky exoplanet that is in the final stage of its existence as it evaporates away due to its high temperature due to being extremely close to its star and because of its low-mass.[1]

Disintegrating planets usually form a comet-like tail on their orbit around a star. In the case of BD+05 4868Ab the planet also formed a leading tail in front of the path of the planet.[2] Astronomers can study the transits to learn more about the geology of exoplanets, especially about the composition of the mantle and at later stages the core material. The evaporating material will re-condensate into minerals that can be different from mantle minerals.[3][4] The composition of the tail can be determined by modelling the transits caused by the dust tail. For Kepler-1520b and K2-22b one work find magnesium-iron silicates fitting the transits well.[3] The evaporating material can also be analysed via transmission spectroscopy. In the case of K2-22b observations with JWST found magnesium silicate minerals, consistent with mantle material. The observations also showed an unexpected feature that could come from the gases NO or CO2.[4]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Catastrophic evaporation of rocky planets, Daniel Perez-Becker, Eugene Chiang, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 433, Issue 3, 11 August 2013
  2. ^ Hon, Marc; Rappaport, Saul; Shporer, Avi; Vanderburg, Andrew; Collins, Karen A.; Watkins, Cristilyn N.; Schwarz, Richard P.; Barkaoui, Khalid; Yee, Samuel W. (2025-01-09). "A Disintegrating Rocky Planet with Prominent Comet-like Tails Around a Bright Star". The Astrophysical Journal. 984 (1): L3. arXiv:2501.05431. Bibcode:2025ApJ...984L...3H. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/adbf21.
  3. ^ a b Campos Estrada, Beatriz; Owen, James E.; Jankovic, Marija R.; Wilson, Anna; Helling, Christiane (2024-02-01). "On the likely magnesium-iron silicate dusty tails of catastrophically evaporating rocky planets". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 528 (2): 1249–1263. arXiv:2311.02477. Bibcode:2024MNRAS.528.1249C. doi:10.1093/mnras/stae095. ISSN 0035-8711.
  4. ^ a b Tusay, Nick; Wright, Jason T.; Beatty, Thomas G.; Desch, Steve; Colón, Knicole; Mittal, Tushar; Osborn, Hugh P.; Estrada, Beatriz Campos; Owen, James E. (2025-01-14). "A Disintegrating Rocky World Shrouded in Dust and Gas: Mid-IR Observations of K2-22b using JWST". arXiv:2501.08301 [astro-ph].

Further reading

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