A Large and Variable Leading Tail of Helium in a Hot Saturn Undergoing Runaway Inflation

TL;DR

This study presents transit spectroscopy of the hot Saturn HAT-P-67 b, revealing a large, variable helium tail indicating significant atmospheric escape and ongoing runaway evaporation driven mainly by XUV irradiation.

Contribution

First detection of a large, variable helium tail in a hot Saturn, providing direct evidence of atmospheric escape and insights into runaway evaporation mechanisms.

Findings

Helium absorption up to 10% at 10833 Angstroms.

Excess helium tail extends up to 130 planetary radii.

Estimated mass loss rate around 2×10^{13} g/s.

Abstract

Atmospheric escape shapes the fate of exoplanets, with statistical evidence for transformative mass loss imprinted across the mass-radius-insolation distribution. Here we present transit spectroscopy of the highly irradiated, low-gravity, inflated hot Saturn HAT-P-67 b. The Habitable Zone Planet Finder (HPF) spectra show a detection of up to 10% absorption depth of the 10833 Angstrom Helium triplet. The 13.8 hours of on-sky integration time over 39 nights sample the entire planet orbit, uncovering excess Helium absorption preceding the transit by up to 130 planetary radii in a large leading tail. This configuration can be understood as the escaping material overflowing its small Roche lobe and advecting most of the gas into the stellar -- and not planetary -- rest frame, consistent with the Doppler velocity structure seen in the Helium line profiles. The prominent leading tail serves as direct evidence for dayside mass loss with a strong day-/night- side asymmetry. We see some transit-to-transit variability in the line profile, consistent with the interplay of stellar and planetary winds. We employ 1D Parker wind models to estimate the mass loss rate, finding values on the order of $2\times10^{13}$ g/s, with large uncertainties owing to the unknown XUV flux of the F host star. The large mass loss in HAT-P-67 b represents a valuable example of an inflated hot Saturn, a class of planets recently identified to be rare as their atmospheres are predicted to evaporate quickly. We contrast two physical mechanisms for runaway evaporation: Ohmic dissipation and XUV irradiation, slightly favoring the latter.