2021AJ....162..284S

Understanding the effects of high-energy radiation and stellar winds on planetary atmospheres is vital for explaining the observed properties of close-in exoplanets. Observations of transiting exoplanets in the triplet of metastable helium lines at 10830 Å allow extended atmospheres and escape processes to be studied for individual planets. We observed one transit of WASP-107b with NIRSPEC on Keck at 10830 Å. Our observations, for the first time, had significant posttransit phase coverage, and we detected excess absorption for over an hour after fourth contact. The data can be explained by a comet-like tail extending out to ∼7 planet radii, which corresponds to roughly twice the Roche lobe radius of the planet. Planetary tails are expected based on three-dimensional simulations of escaping exoplanet atmospheres, particularly those including the interaction between the escaped material and strong stellar winds, and have been previously observed at 10830 Å in at least one other exoplanet. With both the largest midtransit absorption signal and the most extended tail observed at 10830 Å, WASP-107b remains a keystone exoplanet for atmospheric escape studies.