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The XUV irradiation and likely atmospheric escape of the super-Earth $\pi$ Men c
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Submitted 7 Jan 2019
abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review
The authors' main claim Given the small atmospheric scale heights of super-Earths, together with their potentially cloudy atmospheres, and the consequent difficulty in measuring transmission spectra, we conclude that ultraviolet absorption by material escaping $\pi$ Men c presents the best opportunity currently to determine the atmospheric composition of a super-Earth.
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The abstract, sentence by sentence
$\pi$ Men c was recently announced as the first confirmed exoplanet from the TESS mission. The planet has a radius of just 2 R$_{\rm\oplus}$ and it transits a nearby Sun-like star of naked-eye brightness, making it the ideal target for atmospheric characterisation of a super-Earth. Here we analyse archival $\textit{ROSAT}$ and $\textit{Swift}$ observations of $\pi$ Men in order to determine the X-ray and extreme-ultraviolet irradiation of the planetary atmosphere and assess whether atmospheric escape is likely to be on-going. We find that $\pi$ Men has a similar level of X-ray emission to the Sun, with $L_{\rm X}/L_{\rm bol} = (4.84^{+0.92}_{-0.84})\times10^{-7}$. However, due to its small orbital separation, the high-energy irradiation of the super-Earth is around 2000 times stronger than suffered by the Earth. We show that this is sufficient to drive atmospheric escape at a rate greater than that readily detected from the warm Neptune GJ 436b. Furthermore, we estimate $\pi$ Men to be four times brighter at Ly $\alpha$ than GJ 436. Given the small atmospheric scale heights of super-Earths, together with their potentially cloudy atmospheres, and the consequent difficulty in measuring transmission spectra, we conclude that ultraviolet absorption by material escaping $\pi$ Men c presents the best opportunity currently to determine the atmospheric composition of a super-Earth.
background contribution method result interpretation main claim
| # | sentence | role | the authors' own work | states the main conclusion | strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| s0 | $\pi$ Men c was recently announced as the first confirmed exoplanet from the TESS mission. | background 1.00 | 0.04 | 0.02 | asserted 1.00 |
| s1 | The planet has a radius of just 2 R$_{\rm\oplus}$ and it transits a nearby Sun-like star of naked-eye brightness, making it the ideal target for atmospheric characterisation of a super-Earth. | background 1.00 | 0.06 | 0.02 | asserted 1.00 |
| s2 | Here we analyse archival $\textit{ROSAT}$ and $\textit{Swift}$ observations of $\pi$ Men in order to determine the X-ray and extreme-ultraviolet irradiation of the planetary atmosphere and assess whether atmospheric escape is likely to be on-going. | contribution 0.58 | 0.92 | 0.05 | asserted 0.73 |
| s3 | We find that $\pi$ Men has a similar level of X-ray emission to the Sun, with $L_{\rm X}/L_{\rm bol} = (4.84^{+0.92}_{-0.84})\times10^{-7}$. | result 1.00 | 0.95 | 0.06 | asserted 1.00 |
| s4 | However, due to its small orbital separation, the high-energy irradiation of the super-Earth is around 2000 times stronger than suffered by the Earth. | result 0.97 | 0.80 | 0.11 | asserted 0.99 |
| s5 | We show that this is sufficient to drive atmospheric escape at a rate greater than that readily detected from the warm Neptune GJ 436b. | result 0.58 | 0.88 | 0.43 | asserted 1.00 |
| s6 | Furthermore, we estimate $\pi$ Men to be four times brighter at Ly $\alpha$ than GJ 436. | result 1.00 | 0.86 | 0.05 | asserted 1.00 |
| s7 | Given the small atmospheric scale heights of super-Earths, together with their potentially cloudy atmospheres, and the consequent difficulty in measuring transmission spectra, we conclude that ultraviolet absorption by material escaping $\pi$ Men c presents the best opportunity currently to determine the atmospheric composition of a super-Earth. | interpretation 0.69 | 0.31 | 0.79 | asserted 0.62 |
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Original abstract
$\pi$ Men c was recently announced as the first confirmed exoplanet from the TESS mission. The planet has a radius of just 2 R$_{\rm\oplus}$ and it transits a nearby Sun-like star of naked-eye brightness, making it the ideal target for atmospheric characterisation of a super-Earth. Here we analyse archival $\textit{ROSAT}$ and $\textit{Swift}$ observations of $\pi$ Men in order to determine the X-ray and extreme-ultraviolet irradiation of the planetary atmosphere and assess whether atmospheric escape is likely to be on-going. We find that $\pi$ Men has a similar level of X-ray emission to the Sun, with $L_{\rm X}/L_{\rm bol} = (4.84^{+0.92}_{-0.84})\times10^{-7}$. However, due to its small orbital separation, the high-energy irradiation of the super-Earth is around 2000 times stronger than suffered by the Earth. We show that this is sufficient to drive atmospheric escape at a rate greater than that readily detected from the warm Neptune GJ 436b. Furthermore, we estimate $\pi$ Men to be four times brighter at Ly $\alpha$ than GJ 436. Given the small atmospheric scale heights of super-Earths, together with their potentially cloudy atmospheres, and the consequent difficulty in measuring transmission spectra, we conclude that ultraviolet absorption by material escaping $\pi$ Men c presents the best opportunity currently to determine the atmospheric composition of a super-Earth.
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Uses data or values from 1 paper
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We adopted the stellar and planetary parameters from [ref] , and the positional and kinematic information provided by the second Gaia data release [ref] .
TESS Discovery of a Transiting Super-Earth in the $\pi$ Mensae System · Observations · 1.00
Compares with 1 paper
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We compare our results with those [ref] in Table [ref], where it can be seen that our estimate using the measured XUV flux is a factor of 2.3 higher.
TESS's first planet: a super-Earth transiting the naked-eye star $\pi$ Mensae · Atmospheric escape · 1.00
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