On the Insignificance of Photochemical Hydrocarbon Aerosols in the Atmospheres of Close-in Extrasolar Giant Planets

Abstract

The close-in extrasolar giant planets (CEGPs) reside in irradiated environments much more intense than that of the giant planets in our solar system. The high UV irradiance strongly influences their photochemistry, and the general current view believed that this high UV flux will greatly enhance photochemical production of hydrocarbon aerosols. In this Letter, we investigate hydrocarbon aerosol formation in the atmospheres of CEGPs. We find that the abundances of hydrocarbons in the atmospheres of CEGPs are significantly less than that of Jupiter except for models in which the CH4 abundance is unreasonably high (as high as CO) for the hot (effective temperatures ≳1000 K) atmospheres. Moreover, the hydrocarbons will be condensed out to form aerosols only when the temperature-pressure profiles of the species intersect with the saturation profiles—a case almost certainly not realized in the hot CEGPs' atmospheres. Hence our models show that photochemical hydrocarbon aerosols are insignificant in the atmospheres of CEGPs. In contrast, Jupiter and Saturn have a much higher abundance of hydrocarbon aerosols in their atmospheres that are responsible for strong absorption shortward of 600 nm. Thus the insignificance of photochemical hydrocarbon aerosols in the atmospheres of CEGPs rules out one class of models with low albedos and featureless spectra shortward of 600 nm.

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