Exoplanets, -moons, -comets

Observational Signatures of Planetary Tidal Disruption Events Around Solar-Mass Stars

By Keith Cowing
Status Report
astro-ph.EP
January 26, 2026
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Observational Signatures of Planetary Tidal Disruption Events Around Solar-Mass Stars
Synthetic imaging of the fiducial Jupiter TDE at λ = 1.0 µm observed from d = 140 pc. The four panels show the morphological evolution from the initial compact debris (a) and the formation of the primary spiral arm during the rise (b), to the turbulent peak (c) and the relaxed disk (d). To enhance the visibility of the emission structure, the intensity is scaled radially by (r/0.07 au)3 . For reference, the total physical flux density of the system at the peak epoch (c) is ∼ 1.7×102 Jy. — astro-ph.EP

The tidal disruption of planets by their host stars represents a growing area of interest in transient astronomy, offering insights into the final stages of planetary system evolution.

We model the hydrodynamic evolution and predict the multi-wavelength observational signatures of planetary TDEs around a solar-mass host, focusing on Jupiter-like and Neptune-like progenitors and examining how different eccentricities of the planet’s pre-disruption orbit shape the morphology and emission of the tidal this http URL perform 2D hydrodynamic simulations using the FARGO3D code to model the formation and viscous evolution of the resulting debris disk.

We employ a viscous alpha-disk prescription and include a time-dependent energy equation to compute the disk’s effective temperature and subsequently derive the bolometric and multi-band photometric light this http URL simulations show that planetary TDEs produce a diverse range of luminous transients. A Jupiter-like planet disrupted from a circular orbit at the Roche limit generates a transient peaking at Lbol≈1038 erg s−1 after a 12-day rise.

In contrast, the same planet on an eccentric orbit (e=0.5) produces a transient of comparable peak luminosity but on a much shorter timescale, peaking in only 1 day and followed by a highly volatile light curve. We find that the effect of eccentricity is not universal, as it accelerates the event for Jupiter but delays it for Neptune.

A robust “bluer-when-brighter” colour evolution is a common feature as the disk cools over its multi-year lifetime. The strong dependence of light curve morphology on the initial orbit and progenitor mass makes these events powerful diagnostics. This framework is crucial for identifying planetary TDEs in time-domain surveys.

Matías Montesinos, Sergei Nayakshin, Vardan Elbakyan, Zhen Guo, Mario Sucerquia, Amelia Bayo, Zhaohuan Zhu

Comments: 13 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2601.12501 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2601.12501v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.12501
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Submission history
From: Matias Montesinos
[v1] Sun, 18 Jan 2026 17:24:23 UTC (1,447 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.12501
Astrobiology,

Keith Cowing

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻

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