Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2004-04-05
Astron.Astrophys. 419 (2004) L13
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
5 pages, 3 figures, accepted in A&A Letter
Scientific paper
10.1051/0004-6361:20040129
We include the effect of evaporation in our evolutionary calculations of close-in giant planets, based on a recent model for thermal evaporation taking into account the XUV flux of the parent star (Lammer et al. 2003). Our analysis leads to the existence of a critical mass for a given orbital distance $m_{\rm crit}(a)$ below which the evaporation timescale becomes shorter than the thermal timescale of the planet. For planets with initial masses below $m_{\rm crit}$, evaporation leads to a rapid expansion of the outer layers and of the total planetary radius, speeding up the evaporation process. Consequently, the planet does not survive as long as estimated by a simple application of mass loss rates without following consistently its evolution. We find out that the transit planet HD 209458b might be in such a dramatic phase, although with an extremely small probability. As a consequence, we predict that, after a certain time, only planets above a value $m_{\rm crit}(a)$ should be present at an orbital distance $a$ of a star. For planets with initial masses above $m_{\rm crit}$, evaporation does not affect the evolution of the radius with time.
Allard France
Baraffe Isabelle
Barman Travis S.
Chabrier Gilles
Hauschildt Peter. H.
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