Revision 2

Accepted · core change · record

Changes against revision 1:

Title: Is there a sharp boundary between airless and atmosphere-bearing planets?
Plain: In the Solar System, bodies that are small or strongly heated have no air, and the dividing line follows a simple rule linking gravity and sunlight. Whether exoplanets follow the same line is untested.
Precise · changed · core: Revision 1: Test whether atmosphere retention among rocky exoplanets follows the cosmic shoreline relation $I \text{ proportional to } v_{\mathrm{esc}}^4$ (I the cumulative XUV or bolometric instellation, v_esc the escape speed) proposed from Solar System bodies, and measure its location and width for M-dwarf and FGK hosts. The answer is the boundary in the $(v_{\mathrm{esc}}, I)$ plane with its scatter.; Revision 2: Test whether atmosphere retention among rocky exoplanets follows the cosmic shoreline relation $I \text{ proportional to } v_{\mathrm{esc}}^4$ ($I$ the cumulative XUV or bolometric instellation, $v_{\mathrm{esc}}$ the escape speed) proposed from Solar System bodies, and measure its location and width for M-dwarf and FGK hosts. The answer is the boundary in the $(v_{\mathrm{esc}}, I)$ plane with its scatter.
Settled by: Atmosphere detections and non-detections for a sample of rocky planets spanning at least an order of magnitude in $v_{\mathrm{esc}}$ and instellation.
Kind: well-posed
Answer type: value
References: (empty)
Literature status: open
Status note: (empty)
Posed since: 2017

Decisions