photoevaporate

English[edit]

photoevaporate (third-person singular simple present photoevaporates, present participle photoevaporating, simple past and past participle photoevaporated)

(astronomy, of energetic radiation or its source) To ionise gas and cause it to disperse.
- 2006 June 8, Sabine Richling, David Hollenbach, Harold W. Yorke, “Destruction of protoplanetary disks by photoevaporation”, in Hubert Klahr, Wolfgang Brandner, editor, Planet Formation: Theory, Observations, and Experiments, Cambridge University Press, page 40:
  High-mass stars rapidly (~ 10⁵ yr) photoevaporate the outer (r > 5 AU) portions of their disks […]