OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE FOR TIDAL DESTRUCTION OF EXOPLANETS

By B. Jackson, R. Barnes, Richard Greenberg. 2009

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The distribution of the orbits of close-in exoplanets shows evidence for ongoing removal and destruction by tides. Tides raised on a planet's host star cause the planet's orbit to decay, even after the orbital eccentricity has dropped to zero. Comparison of the observed orbital distribution and predictions of tidal theory shows good qualitative agreement, suggesting tidal destruction of close-in exoplanets is common. The process can explain the observed cutoff in small semimajor axis values, the clustering of orbital periods near three days, and the relative youth of transiting planets. Contrary to previous considerations, a mechanism to stop the inward migration of close-in planets at their current orbits is not necessarily required. Planets nearing tidal destruction may be found with extremely small semimajor axes, possibly already stripped of any gaseous envelope. The recently discovered CoroT-7 b may be an example of such a planet and will probably be destroyed by tides within the next few Gyrs. Also, where one or more planets have already been accreted, a star may exhibit an unusual composition and/or spin rate.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c0b489945efdc539d36bb349a544e88419849e44

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Citations in the corpus

• Accurate Empirical Radii and Masses of Planets and Their Host Stars with Gaia Parallaxes (2016, background): “Despite many suggested solutions to this “inflated Hot Jupiter” problem (Guillot & Showman 2002; Burrows et al. 2007; Chabrier & Baraffe 2007; Jackson et al. 2009; Arras & Socrates 2010; Batygin et al. 2011), no one explanation has emerged as the leading contender, although empirical trends with…”
• A STELLAR-MASS-DEPENDENT DROP IN PLANET OCCURRENCE RATES (2014, methodology): “…by dissipation of tidal energy over gigayear time scales, which results in a planet distribution as a function of semi-major axis (Figure 4 in Jackson et al. 2009) closely resembling our 6 The physics of dust and ice sublimation are essentially the same, and we have checked with the original…”
• The GAPS Programme with HARPS-N at TNG - XIV. Investigating giant planet migration history via improved eccentricity and mass determination for 231 transiting planets (2017, unknown): “Tidal evolution models for the population of hot Jupiters as computed by Jackson et al. (2008, 2009) are also in general agreement with 10 6 < ∼ Q s < ∼ 10 7 , but our ignorance of the initial conditions of the close giant planet population ultimately hampers any possibility of precisely estimating…”
• The TRAPPIST survey of southern transiting planets. I. Thirty eclipses of the ultra-short period planet WASP-43 b (2012, background): “…with the host star that should lead in most cases to a slow spiral-in of the planet and to a transfer of angular momentum to the star (e.g. Barker & Ogilvie 2009, Jackson et al. 2009, Mastumura et al. 2010), the end result being the planet’s disruption at its Roche limit (Gu et al. 2003).”
• TIDAL EVOLUTION OF CLOSE-IN PLANETS (2010, background): “These Darwin-unstable planets may eventually be accreted by the central star, which has been suggested for some systems observationally (e.g. Gonzalez 1997; Ecuvillon et al. 2006) and numerically (Jackson et al. 2009).”
• Tidal dissipation in planet-hosting stars: damping of spin-orbit misalignment and survival of hot Jupiters (2011, background): “Many previous works on tidal evolution in hot Jupiter systems (e.g., Rasio et al. 1996; Sasselov 2003; Dobbs-Dixon et al. 2004; Barker & Ogilvie 2009; Jackson et al. 2009; Levrard et al. 2009; Hansen 2010; Matsumura et al. 2010) were based on the weak friction theory of equilibrium tides.”
• WASP-19b: THE SHORTEST PERIOD TRANSITING EXOPLANET YET DISCOVERED (2010, background): “Most transiting extrasolar planets will ultimately spiral into their host stars because there is insufficient total angular momentum in the systems to reach a state of tidal equilibrium (Hut 1980; Rasio et al. 1996; Jackson et al. 2009).”
• Tidal Dissipation in Stars and Giant Planets (2014, background): “…or constrain Q′ ∗ by statistical modelling of the observed orbital semi-major axes and eccentricities, either of populations or of single systems (Jackson et al. 2008, 2009; Hansen 2010; Schlaufman et al. 2010; Brown et al. 2011), there is as yet no convincing evidence of any orbital…”
• THE HEAVY-ELEMENT MASSES OF EXTRASOLAR GIANT PLANETS, REVEALED (2011, background): “The reason for this effect has not been determined; a variety of additional internal energy sources or contraction-stalling mechanisms have been proposed (Guillot & Showman 2002; Jackson et al. 2009; Batygin et al. 2011; Chabrier & Baraffe 2007; Arras & Socrates 2010).”
• Tidal locking of habitable exoplanets (2017, background): “…paradox has led numerous researchers to reject the CPL model, despite its relative success at reproducing features in the Solar System, e.g., (MacDonald 1964; Hut 1981; Goldreich and Soter 1966; Peale et al. 1979), as well as the tidal circularization of close-in exoplanets (Jackson et al. 2008).”