The Influence of Galactic Cosmic Rays on Ion-Neutral Hydrocarbon Chemistry in the Upper Atmospheres of Free-Floating Exoplanets

Cosmic rays may be linked to the formation of volatiles necessary for prebiotic chemistry. We explore the effect of cosmic rays in a hydrogen-dominated atmosphere, as a proof-of-concept that ion-neutral chemistry may be important for modelling hydrogen-dominated atmospheres. In order to accomplish this, we utilize Monte Carlo cosmic ray transport models with particle energies of $10^6$ eV $< E < 10^{12}$ eV in order to investigate the cosmic ray enhancement of free electrons in substellar atmospheres. Ion-neutral chemistry is then applied to a Drift-Phoenix model of a free-floating giant gas planet. Our results suggest that the activation of ion-neutral chemistry in the upper atmosphere significantly enhances formation rates for various species, and we find that C$_2$H$_2$, C$_2$H$_4$, NH$_3$, C$_6$H$_6$ and possibly C$_{10}$H are enhanced in the upper atmospheres because of cosmic rays. Our results suggest a potential connection between cosmic ray chemistry and the hazes observed in the upper atmospheres of various extrasolar planets. Chemi-ionization reactions are briefly discussed, as they may enhance the degree of ionization in the cloud layer.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures. Accepted to the International Journal of Astrobiolog

Ionisation and discharge in cloud-forming atmospheres of brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets

Brown dwarfs and giant gas extrasolar planets have cold atmospheres with rich chemical compositions from which mineral cloud particles form. Their properties, like particle sizes and material composition, vary with height, and the mineral cloud particles are charged due to triboelectric processes in such dynamic atmospheres. The dynamics of the atmospheric gas is driven by the irradiating host star and/or by the rotation of the objects that changes during its lifetime. Thermal gas ionisation in these ultra-cool but dense atmospheres allows electrostatic interactions and magnetic coupling of a substantial atmosphere volume. Combined with a strong magnetic field , a chromosphere and aurorae might form as suggested by radio and x-ray observations of brown dwarfs. Non-equilibrium processes like cosmic ray ionisation and discharge processes in clouds will increase the local pool of free electrons in the gas. Cosmic rays and lighting discharges also alter the composition of the local atmospheric gas such that tracer molecules might be identified. Cosmic rays affect the atmosphere through air showers in a certain volume which was modelled with a 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code to be able to visualise their spacial extent. Given a certain degree of thermal ionisation of the atmospheric gas, we suggest that electron attachment to charge mineral cloud particles is too inefficient to cause an electrostatic disruption of the cloud particles. Cloud particles will therefore not be destroyed by Coulomb explosion for the local temperature in the collisional dominated brown dwarf and giant gas planet atmospheres. However, the cloud particles are destroyed electrostatically in regions with strong gas ionisation. The potential size of such cloud holes would, however, be too small and might occur too far inside the cloud to mimic the effect of, e.g. magnetic field induced star spots

Oxidised micrometeorites as evidence for low atmospheric pressure on the early Earth

Reconstructing a record of the partial pressure of molecular oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere is key for understanding macroevolutionary and environmental change over geological history. Recently, the oxidation state of iron in micrometeorites has been taken to imply the presence of modern Earth concentrations of oxygen in the upper atmosphere at 2.7 Ga, and therefore a highly chemically stratified atmosphere (Tomkins et al., 2016). We here explore the possibility that the mixing ratio of oxygen in Earth’s upper atmosphere, that probed by micrometeorites, may instead be sensitive to the surface atmospheric pressure. We find that the concentrations of oxygen in the upper atmosphere required for micrometeorite oxidation are achieved for a 0.3 bar atmosphere. In this case, significant water vapour reaches high up in the atmosphere and is photodissociated, leading to the formation of molecular oxygen. The presence of oxidised iron in micrometeorites at 2.7 Ga may therefore be further evidence that the atmospheric pressure at the surface of the early Earth was substantially lower than it is today

Evidence for quantum confinement in the photoluminescence of porous Si and SiGe

We have used anodization techniques to process porous surface regions in p-type Czochralski Si and in p-type Si0.85Ge0.15 epitaxial layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The SiGe layers were unrelaxed before processing. We have observed strong near-infrared and visible light emission from both systems. Analysis of the radiative and nonradiative recombination processes indicate that the emission is consistent with the decay of excitons localized in structures of one or zero dimensions

Lightning climatology of exoplanets and brown dwarfs guided by Solar system data

We highlight financial support of the European Community under the FP7 by an ERC starting grant number 257431. RAT thanks the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) and the Physics Trust of the University of St Andrews for supporting his summer placement at the University of St Andrews.Clouds form on extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs where lightning could occur. Lightning is a tracer of atmospheric convection, cloud formation and ionization processes as known from the Solar system, and may be significant for the formation of prebiotic molecules. We study lightning climatology for the different atmospheric environments of Earth, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. We present lightning distribution maps for Earth, Jupiter and Saturn, and flash densities for these planets and Venus, based on optical and/or radio measurements from the World Wide Lightning Location Network and Sferics Timing and Ranging Network radio networks, the Lightning Imaging Sensor/Optical Transient Detector satellite instruments, the Galileo, Cassini, New Horizons and Venus Express spacecraft. We also present flash densities calculated for several phases of two volcano eruptions, Eyjafjallajökull's (2010) and Mt Redoubt's (2009). We estimate lightning rates for sample, transiting and directly imaged extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs. Based on the large variety of exoplanets, six categories are suggested for which we use the lightning occurrence information from the Solar system. We examine lightning energy distributions for Earth, Jupiter and Saturn. We discuss how strong stellar activity may support lightning activity. We provide a lower limit of the total number of flashes that might occur on transiting planets during their full transit as input for future studies. We find that volcanically very active planets might show the largest lightning flash densities. When applying flash densities of the large Saturnian storm from 2010/11, we find that the exoplanet HD 189733b would produce high lightning occurrence even during its short transit.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The Galactic cosmic ray intensity at the evolving Earth and young exoplanets

Cosmic rays may have contributed to the start of life on the Earth. Here, we investigate the evolution of the Galactic cosmic ray spectrum at the Earth from ages t = 0.6−6.0 Gyr. We use a 1D cosmic ray transport model and a 1.5D stellar wind model to derive the evolving wind properties of a solar-type star. At t=1 Gyr, approximately when life is thought to have begun on the Earth, we find that the intensity of ∼GeV Galactic cosmic rays would have been ∼10 times smaller than the present-day value. At lower kinetic energies, Galactic cosmic ray modulation would have been even more severe. More generally, we find that the differential intensity of low-energy Galactic cosmic rays decreases at younger ages and is well described by a broken power law in solar rotation rate. We provide an analytic formula of our Galactic cosmic ray spectra at the Earth’s orbit for different ages. Our model is also applicable to other solar-type stars with exoplanets orbiting at different radii. Specifically, we use our Galactic cosmic ray spectrum at 20 au for t=600 Myr to estimate the penetration of cosmic rays in the atmosphere of HR 2562b, a directly imaged exoplanet orbiting a young solar-type star. We find that the majority of particles <0.1 GeV are attenuated at pressures ≳10−5 bar and thus do not reach altitudes below ∼100 km. Observationally constraining the Galactic cosmic ray spectrum in the atmosphere of a warm Jupiter would in turn help constrain the flux of cosmic rays reaching young Earth-like exoplanets

A spectral survey of an ultra-hot Jupiter: Detection of metals in the transmission spectrum of KELT-9 b

Context: KELT-9 b exemplifies a newly emerging class of short-period gaseous exoplanets that tend to orbit hot, early type stars - termed ultra-hot Jupiters. The severe stellar irradiation heats their atmospheres to temperatures of $\sim 4,000$ K, similar to the photospheres of dwarf stars. Due to the absence of aerosols and complex molecular chemistry at such temperatures, these planets offer the potential of detailed chemical characterisation through transit and day-side spectroscopy. Studies of their chemical inventories may provide crucial constraints on their formation process and evolution history. Aims: To search the optical transmission spectrum of KELT-9 b for absorption lines by metals using the cross-correlation technique. Methods: We analyse 2 transits observed with the HARPS-N spectrograph. We use an isothermal equilibrium chemistry model to predict the transmission spectrum for each of the neutral and singly-ionized atoms with atomic numbers between 3 and 78. Of these, we identify the elements that are expected to have spectral lines in the visible wavelength range and use those as cross-correlation templates. Results: We detect absorption of Na I, Cr II, Sc II and Y II, and confirm previous detections of Mg I, Fe I, Fe II and Ti II. In addition, we find evidence of Ca I, Cr I, Co I, and Sr II that will require further observations to verify. The detected absorption lines are significantly deeper than model predictions, suggesting that material is transported to higher altitudes where the density is enhanced compared to a hydrostatic profile. There appears to be no significant blue-shift of the absorption spectrum due to a net day-to-night side wind. In particular, the strong Fe II feature is shifted by $0.18 \pm 0.27$ km~s$^{-1}$, consistent with zero. Using the orbital velocity of the planet we revise the steller and planetary masses and radii.Comment: Submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics on January 18, 2019. Accepted on May 3, 2019. 26 pages, 11 figure