Types of gaseous envelopes of “hot Jupiter” exoplanets

Abstract

As a rule, the orbital velocities of “hot Jupiters,” i.e., exoplanets with masses comparable to the mass of Jupiter and orbital semi-major axes less than 0.1 AU, are supersonic relative to the stellar wind, resulting in the formation of a bow shock. Gas-dynamical modeling shows that the gaseous envelopes around hot Jupiters can belong to two classes, depending on the position of the collision point. if the collision point is inside the Roche lobe of the planet, the envelopes have the almost spherical shapes of classical atmospheres, slightly distorted by the influence of the star and interactions with the stellar-wind gas; if the collision point is located outside the Roche lobe, outflows from the vicinity of the Lagrangian points L₁ and L₂ arise, and the envelope becomes substantially asymmetrical. The latter class of objects can also be divided into two types. If the dynamical pressure of the stellar-wind gas is high enough to stop the most powerful outflow from the vicinity of the inner Lagrangian point L₁, a closed quasi-spherical envelope with a complex shape forms in the system. If the wind is unable to stop the outflow from L₁, an open aspherical envelope forms. The possible existence of atmospheres of these three types is confirmed by 3D numerical modeling. Using the typical hot Jupiter HD 209458b as an example, it is shown that all three types of atmospheres could exist within the range of estimated parameters of this planet. Since different types of envelopes have different observational manifestations, determining the type of envelope in HD 209458b could apply additional constrains on the parameters of this exoplanet.