Hot Neptune GJ-436b Comet-like Tail Suggests Exoatmosphere Will Last Billions of Years

Lyman-α Transit Spectroscopy and the Neutral Hydrogen Tail of the Hot Neptune GJ436b

Authors:

Kulow et al

Abstract:

To date, more than 750 planets have been discovered orbiting stars other than the Sun. Two sub-classes of these exoplanets, "hot Jupiters" and their less massive counterparts "hot Neptunes," provide a unique opportunity to study the extended atmospheres of planets outside of our solar system. We describe here the first far-ultraviolet transit study of a hot Neptune, specifically GJ436b, for which we use HST/STIS Lyman-α spectra to measure stellar flux as a function of time, observing variations due to absorption from the planetary atmosphere during transit. This analysis permits us to derive information about atmospheric extent, mass-loss rate from the planet, and interactions between the star and planet. We observe an evolution of the Lyman-α lightcurve with a transit depth of GJ436b from 8.8±4.5% near mid-transit, to 22.9±3.9% ∼2 hours after the nominal geometric egress of the planet. Using data from the time-tag mode and considering astrophysical noise from stellar variability, we calculate a post-egress occultation of 23.7±4.5%, demonstrating that the signature is statistically significant and of greater amplitude than can be attributed to stellar fluctuations alone. The extended egress absorption indicates the probable existence of a comet-like tail trailing the exoplanet. We calculate a mass-loss rate for GJ436b in the range of 3.7×10^6−1.1×10^9 g s−1, corresponding to an atmospheric lifetime of 4×10^11−2×10^14 years.