The X-ray irradiation of the nearest transiting super-Earth

The recent discovery of a superEarth transiting the bright star HD219134provides an unprecedented opportunity for detailed study of the atmosphere of alowmass exoplanet. The K3V star is located at a distance of only 6.5pc,enabling sensitive measurements of its Xray flux and spectrum. This isimportant because Xray/EUV irradiation is believed to drive the observedevaporation of hot Jupiters (HD209458b, HD189733b) and Neptunes (GJ436b), andHD219134b will extended these studies to the superEarth regime. Here we proposean XMMNewton observation that will define the highenergy environment of theplanet and allow estimates of its atmospheric escape rate. This will aid theinterpretation of atmosphere observations with HST, Spitzer, JWST etc. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]