The Radiation Environment of Exoplanet Atmospheres

Jeffrey L. Linsky
Additional contact information
Jeffrey L. Linsky: JILA, University of Colorado and NIST, Boulder, CO 80309, USA

Challenges, 2014, vol. 5, issue 2, 1-23

Abstract: Exoplanets are born and evolve in the radiation and particle environment created by their host star. The host star’s optical and infrared radiation heats the exoplanet’s lower atmosphere and surface, while the ultraviolet, extreme ultraviolet and X-radiation control the photochemistry and mass loss from the exoplanet’s upper atmosphere. Stellar radiation, especially at the shorter wavelengths, changes dramatically as a host star evolves leading to changes in the planet’s atmosphere and habitability. This paper reviews the present state of our knowledge concerning the time-dependent radiation emitted by stars with convective zones, that is stars with spectral types F, G, K, and M, which comprise nearly all of the host stars of detected exoplanets.

Keywords: exoplanets; stellar radiation; ultraviolet spectrum; exoplanet photochemistry; Lyman-alpha radiation; model chromospheres (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A00 C00 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/5/2/351/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/5/2/351/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jchals:v:5:y:2014:i:2:p:351-373:d:41756

Access Statistics for this article

Challenges is currently edited by Ms. Karen Sun

More articles in Challenges from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().