An Observational Signature of Evolved Oceans on Extrasolar Terrestrial Planets
- 11 March 2004
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Astronomical Society in The Astrophysical Journal
- Vol. 605 (1) , L65-L68
- https://doi.org/10.1086/386549
Abstract
The increase with time in the luminosity of a main-sequence star can eventually lead to substantial evaporation of the oceans on an orbiting terrestrial planet. Subsequently, the gas-phase H2O in the planet's upper atmosphere can be photodissociated by stellar ultraviolet, and the resulting atomic hydrogen then may be lost in a wind. This gaseous envelope may pass in front of the host star and produce transient, detectable ultraviolet absorption in the Lyman lines in systems older than 1 Gyr.Keywords
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