Atmosphere Escape Inferred from Modeling the Hα Transmission Spectrum of WASP-121b

Abstract

Abstract The escaping atmospheres of hydrogen driven by stellar X-ray and extreme ultraviolet (XUV) have been detected around some exoplanets by the excess absorption of Lyα in the far-ultraviolet band. In the optical band the excess absorption of Hα is also found by ground-based instruments. However, it is not certain if the escape of the atmosphere driven by XUV can result in such absorption. Here we present the XUV-driven hydrodynamic simulation coupled with the calculation of detailed level population and the process of radiative transfer for WASP-121b. Our fiducial model predicts a mass-loss rate of ∼1.28 × 1012 g s−1 for WASP-121b. Due to the high temperature and Lyα intensity predicted by the fiducial model, many hydrogen atoms are populated into the first excited state. As a consequence, the transmission spectrum of Hα simulated by our model is broadly consistent with the observation. Compared with the absorption of Hα at different observation times, the stellar XUV emission varies in the range of 0.5–1.5 times fiducial value, which may reflect the variation of the stellar activity. Finally, we find that the supersonic regions of the planetary wind contribute a prominent portion to the absorption of Hα by comparing the equivalent width of Hα, which hints that a transonic outflow of the upper atmosphere driven by XUV irradiation of the host star can be detected by a ground-based telescope and that Hα can be a good indicator of escaping atmosphere.