Outflow of Helium from a Mature Mini-Neptune

Paper Title:

Outflowing helium from a mature mini-Neptune

Published on:

3 August 2023

Primary Category:

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Paper Authors:

Michael Zhang,

Fei Dai,

Jacob L. Bean,

Heather A. Knutson,

Federica Rescigno

Bullets

Key Details

•

TOI 2134b is the first old mini-Neptune with detected helium loss

•

It has the weakest helium signal and lowest XUV flux of any detection

•

The helium absorption points to a Parker wind-like outflow

•

A strong correlation emerges between expected and observed mass loss

•

TOI 2134b anchors the low end of planet mass loss observations

Explore the topics in this paper

exoplanets

helium detection

mass loss

planetary atmospheres

toi 2134b

AI generated summary

Outflow of Helium from a Mature Mini-Neptune

This paper reports the detection of a tenuous helium outflow from TOI 2134b, the first mature mini-Neptune found to be losing its atmosphere. The planet's advanced age of a few billion years, low XUV irradiation, and weak helium signal provide new insights. When plotted against other helium detections, a strong correlation emerges between the planets' energy-limited mass loss rates and their observed absorption. This anchors theoretical models. More observations are needed to fill in gaps and refine predictions.