photoevaporation

Noun. (astronomy) The removal of the atmosphere of a planet (or the disk of a protoplanet) by high-energy photons from its sun or a nearby hot star.

This is an unmodified, but possibly outdated, definition from Wiktionary and used here under the Creative Commons license. Wiktionary is a great resource. If you like it too, please donate to Wikimedia.

This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.