Evaporation rate of hot Jupiters and formation of Chthonian planets

TL;DR

This paper estimates the evaporation rates of hot Jupiters due to stellar proximity, proposing the formation of a new class of residual planets called Chthonian planets resulting from planetary evaporation.

Contribution

It introduces a model for hydrogen evaporation of hot Jupiters and predicts the existence of Chthonian planets formed from evaporated cores.

Findings

Hot Jupiters can evaporate through geometrical blow-off due to high exospheric temperatures.

A critical distance exists below which hot Jupiters cannot survive intact.

Residual cores of evaporated hot Jupiters are proposed as a new class of planets called Chthonian planets.

Abstract

Among the hundred of known extrasolar planets, about 15% are closer than 0.1 AU from their parent stars. But there are extremely few detections of planets orbiting in less than 3 days. At this limit the planet HD209458b has been found to have an extended upper atmosphere of escaping hydrogen. This suggests that the so-called hot Jupiters which are close to their parent stars could evaporate. Here we estimate the evaporation rate of hydrogen from extrasolar planets in the star vicinity. With high exospheric temperatures, and owing to the tidal forces, planets evaporate through a geometrical blow-off. This may explain the absence of Jupiter mass planets below a critical distance from the stars. Below this critical distance, we infer the existence of a new class of planets made of the residual central core of former hot Jupiters, which we propose to call the ``Chthonian'' planets.