Exoplanet HD 209458b: Inflated hydrogen atmosphere but no sign of evaporation

Many extrasolar planets orbit closely to their parent star. Their existence raises the fundamental problem of loss and gain in their mass. For exoplanet HD 209458b, reports on an unusually extended hydrogen corona and a hot layer in the lower atmosphere seem to support the scenario of atmospheric inflation by the strong stellar irradiation. However, difficulties in reconciling evaporation models with observations call for a reassessment of the problem. Here we use HST archive data to report a new absorption rate of similar to 8.9% +/- 2.1% by atomic hydrogen during the HD 209458b transit and show that no sign of evaporation could be detected for the exoplanet. We also report evidence of time variability in the HD 209458 Ly alpha flux, a variability that was not accounted for in previous studies, which corrupted their diagnostics. Mass-loss rates thus far proposed in the literature in the range 5 x (10(10)-10(11)) g s(-1) must induce a spectral signature in the Ly alpha line profile of HD 209458 that cannot be found in the present analysis. Either an unknown compensation effect is hiding the expected spectral feature or else the mass-loss rate of neutrals from HD 209458 is modest.