Atmospheres play a crucial role in planetary habitability. Around M dwarfs and young Sun-like stars, planets receiving the same insolation as the present-day Earth are exposed to intense stellar X-rays and extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) radiation. This study explores the fundamental question of whether the atmosphere of present-day Earth could survive in such harsh XUV environments. Previous theoretical studies suggest that stellar XUV irradiation is sufficiently intense to remove such atmospheres completely on short timescales. In this study, we develop a new upper-atmospheric model and re-examine the thermal and hydrodynamic responses of the thermospheric structure of an Earth-like N2-O2 atmosphere, on an Earth-mass planet, to an increase in the XUV irradiation. Our model includes the effects of radiative cooling via electronic transitions of atoms and ions, known as atomic line cooling, in addition to the processes accounted for by previous models. We demonstrate that atomic line cooling dominates over the hydrodynamic effect at XUV irradiation levels greater than several times the present level of the Earth. Consequentially, the atmosphere's structure is kept almost hydrostatic, and its escape remains sluggish even at XUV irradiation levels up to a thousand times that of the Earth at present. Our estimates for the Jeans escape rates of N2-O2 atmospheres suggest that these 1 bar atmospheres survive in early active phases of Sun-like stars. Even around active late M dwarfs, N2-O2 atmospheres could escape significant thermal loss on timescales of gigayears. These results give new insights into the habitability of terrestrial exoplanets and the Earth's climate history.
Habitability of Terrestrial-Mass Planets in the HZ of M Dwarfs. I. H/He-Dominated Atmospheres
M矮星的普遍存在，加上相对容易探测到它们周围的地球质量行星，使它们成为寻找和描述“宜居带“（HZ）行星的主要目标。然而，开普勒发现，地球质量的系外行星通常具有大量的H/He包层，包括质量分数（$M_{env}/M_{core}$）$\gtrsim 1$ %。如果这些行星在Gyr时间尺度上保持这样的包络，即使在HZ内，它们也不会“适合居住”。由于M矮星的X射线/紫外线通量很强，我们研究是否有足够的包络质量可以被光蒸发掉，使这些行星变得适合居住。我们改进了以前的工作，通过使用流体动力学模型，占辐射冷却以及从流体动力学到弹道逃逸的过渡。采用一个包含恒星演化的M矮星XUV光谱模板，同时考虑蒸发和热演化，我们证明了：（1）质量损失是（大大）低于以前的估计，使用“能量有限”的形式主义和忽略过渡到金斯逃逸，（2）在HZ的内边缘，行星的核心质量$\lesssim 0.9$ M $_\oplus$，（3）在HZ的外缘，即使从地核到0.8 M $_\oplus$，蒸发也不能去除$\sim$ 1%H/He包层。因此，如果行星形成时有庞大的H/He包层，那么只有那些具有低质量核心的行星最终可能适合居住。核心$\gtrsim$ 1 M $_\oplus$，与$\gtrsim$ 1%的出生H/He信封，将不适合居住在M矮星的HZ。
