Stars provide warmth and light, but sometimes they can also be cruel. This is because "cooked planets," or those that lie close to their host stars, are stripped off of their atmospheres due to intense radiation coming from the fiery, heavenly bodies.
Scientists from the University of Birmingham used data from NASA's Kepler telescope to observe a sample of exoplanets and the effects of their host stars to their respective atmospheres.
The team found that these rocky planets with gaseous atmospheres are hounded by high-energy radiation. The heat emitted by this radiation causes the so-called planetary envelopes to be blown away, especially because the planets are so close to their host stars.
"For these planets it is like standing next to a hairdryer turned up to its hottest setting," says study author Dr. Guy Davies.
Asteroseismology At Play
To learn more about these cooked planets, the team turned to asteroseismology, which is a branch of science that deals with the study of pulsating stars through analysis of their frequency spectra.
Through the said discipline, experts were able to discover the characteristics of the stars and their planets in an unprecedented manner, to an extent not attained before for these systems.
More specifically, asteroseismology enabled the team to characterize the inner parts of the stars and observe other important features through their natural resonances.
The finding has a significant impact on understanding stellar systems more as it provides insights into how planets evolve through time and how their stars contribute to the changes.
Davies says planets that lie close to their stars may have been bigger when they were first formed. "Those planets will have looked very different," he adds.
Confirming Theories
Previous simulations have already sparked assumptions from scientists regarding the possibility that the atmosphere of hot super-Earths are being stripped off through photoevaporation. However, these predictions have not been confirmed until now.
Observational proof to solidify what used to be theoretical speculations are now available. The team, however, will not stop there as it plans to discover more of these stripped systems using new generation satellites.
The study was published in the journal Nature Communications on April 11.
