Ultraviolet C II and Si III Transit Spectroscopy and Modeling of the Evaporating Atmosphere of GJ436b

Abstract

Hydrogen gas evaporating from the atmosphere of the hot-Neptune GJ436b absorbs over 50% of the stellar Lyα emission during transit. Given the planet’s atmospheric composition and energy-limited escape rate, this hydrogen outflow is expected to entrain heavier atoms such as C and O. We searched for C and Si in the escaping atmosphere of GJ436b using far-ultraviolet Hubble Space Telescope COS G130M observations made during the planet’s extended H I transit. These observations show no transit absorption in the C II 1334,1335 Å and Si III 1206 Å lines integrated over [-100, 100] km s^-1, imposing 95% (2σ) upper limits of 14% (C II) and 60% (Si III) depth on the transit of an opaque disk and 22% (C II) and 49% (Si III) depth on an extended highly asymmetric transit similar to that of H I Lyα. C⁺ is likely present in the outflow according to a simulation we carried out using a spherically symmetric photochemical-hydrodynamical model. This simulation predicts an ∼2% transit over the integrated bandpass, consistent with the data. At line center, we predict the C II transit depth to be as high as 19%. Our model predicts a neutral hydrogen escape rate of 1.6× {10}⁹ g s^-1 (3.1× {10}⁹ g s^-1 for all species) for an upper atmosphere composed of hydrogen and helium.