Investigating the Atmospheric Mass Loss of the Kepler-105 Planets Straddling the Radius Gap
Article
Householder, Aaron, Weiss, Lauren M., Owen, James E., Isaacson, Howard, Howard, Andrew W., Fabrycky, Daniel, Rogers, Leslie A., Schlichting, Hilke E., Fulton, Benjamin J., Petigura, Erik A., Giacalone, Steven, Akana Murphy, Joseph M., Beard, Corey, Chontos, Ashley, Dai, Fei, Van Zandt, Judah, Lubin, Jack, Rice, Malena, Polanski, Alex S., ..., Brinkman, Casey. 2024. "Investigating the Atmospheric Mass Loss of the Kepler-105 Planets Straddling the Radius Gap." The Astronomical Journal. 167 (2). https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad19c6
| Article Title | Investigating the Atmospheric Mass Loss of the Kepler-105 Planets Straddling the Radius Gap |
|---|---|
| ERA Journal ID | 1048 |
| Article Category | Article |
| Authors | Householder, Aaron, Weiss, Lauren M., Owen, James E., Isaacson, Howard, Howard, Andrew W., Fabrycky, Daniel, Rogers, Leslie A., Schlichting, Hilke E., Fulton, Benjamin J., Petigura, Erik A., Giacalone, Steven, Akana Murphy, Joseph M., Beard, Corey, Chontos, Ashley, Dai, Fei, Van Zandt, Judah, Lubin, Jack, Rice, Malena, Polanski, Alex S., Dalba, Paul, Blunt, Sarah, Turtelboom, E.V., Rubenzahl, Ryan and Brinkman, Casey |
| Journal Title | The Astronomical Journal |
| Journal Citation | 167 (2) |
| Article Number | 84 |
| Number of Pages | 10 |
| Year | 2024 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing |
| Place of Publication | United States |
| ISSN | 0004-6256 |
| 1538-3881 | |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad19c6 |
| Web Address (URL) | https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ad19c6 |
| Abstract | An intriguing pattern among exoplanets is the lack of detected planets between approximately 1.5 R⊕ and 2.0 R⊕. One proposed explanation for this "radius gap" is the photoevaporation of planetary atmospheres, a theory that can be tested by studying individual planetary systems. Kepler-105 is an ideal system for such testing due to the ordering and sizes of its planets. Kepler-105 is a Sun-like star that hosts two planets straddling the radius gap in a rare architecture with the larger planet closer to the host star (Rb = 2.53 ± 0.07 R⊕, Pb = 5.41 days, Rc = 1.44 ± 0.04 R⊕, Pc = 7.13 days). If photoevaporation sculpted the atmospheres of these planets, then Kepler-105b would need to be much more massive than Kepler-105c to retain its atmosphere, given its closer proximity to the host star. To test this hypothesis, we simultaneously analyzed radial velocities and transit-timing variations of the Kepler-105 system, measuring disparate masses of Mb = 10.8 ± 2.3 M⊕ (ρb = 3.68 ± 0.84 g cm−3) and Mc = 5.6 ± 1.2 M⊕ (ρc = 10.4 ± 2.39 g cm−3). Based on these masses, the difference in gas envelope content of the Kepler-105 planets could be entirely due to photoevaporation (in 76% of scenarios), although other mechanisms like core-powered mass loss could have played a role for some planet albedos. |
| Keywords | Exoplanet atmospheres; Exoplanet formation ; Radial velocity ; Exoplanet evolution; Transit timing variation method; Exoplanets |
| Contains Sensitive Content | Does not contain sensitive content |
| ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 5101. Astronomical sciences |
| Byline Affiliations | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States |
| Yale University, United States | |
| University of Notre Dame, United States | |
| Imperial College London, United Kingdom | |
| University of California Berkeley, United States | |
| Centre for Astrophysics | |
| California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States | |
| University of Chicago, United States | |
| University of California Los Angeles, United States | |
| Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), United States | |
| NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, United States | |
| University of California Santa Cruz, United States | |
| University of California Irvine, United States | |
| Princeton University, United States | |
| University of Hawaii, United States | |
| Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, United States | |
| University of Kansas, United States | |
| University of California Riverside, United Sates |
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