A molecular wind blows out of the Kuiper belt
Quentin Kral, J. E. Pringle, Aur\'elie Guilbert-Lepoutre, Luca, Matr\`a, Julianne I. Moses, Emmanuel Lellouch, Mark C. Wyatt, Nicolas Biver,, Dominique Bockel\'ee-Morvan, Amy Bonsor, Franck Le Petit, G. Randall, Gladstone

TL;DR
This paper models gas release from Kuiper belt objects, predicting ongoing gas winds in our Solar System and providing a physical mechanism that explains observed exoplanetary gas phenomena.
Contribution
It introduces a physical model for gas release from Kuiper belt objects due to internal warming, applicable to both our Solar System and exoplanetary systems.
Findings
Gas is still produced in the Kuiper belt at a measurable rate.
A gas wind extends beyond the heliosphere, containing CO, C, and O.
Current gas levels are too low for detection but could be observed with future missions.
Abstract
Gas has been detected in many exoplanetary systems (10 Myr), thought to be released in the destruction of volatile-rich planetesimals orbiting in exo-Kuiper belts. In this letter, we aim to explore whether gas is also expected in the Kuiper belt (KB) in our Solar System. To quantify the gas release in our Solar System, we use models for gas release that have been applied to extrasolar planetary systems, as well as a physical model that accounts for gas released due to the progressive internal warming of large planetesimals. We find that only bodies larger than about 4 km can still contain CO ice after 4.6 Gyr of evolution. This finding may provide a clue as to why Jupiter-family comets, thought to originate in the Kuiper belt, are deficient in CO compared to Oort-clouds comets. We predict that gas is still produced in the KB right now at a rate of M/Myr…
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