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We consider super-Earth sized planets which have a water mass fraction that is large enough to form an external mantle composed of high pressure water ice polymorphs and that lack a substantial H/He atmosphere. We consider such planets in…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2017-05-01 Amit Levi , Dimitar Sasselov , Morris Podolak

Many habitable zone exoplanets are expected to form with water mass fractions higher than that of the Earth. For rocky exoplanets with 10-1000x Earth's H2O but without H2, we model the multi-Gyr evolution of ocean temperature and chemistry,…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2018-09-03 Edwin S. Kite , Eric B. Ford

Of the few thousand discovered exoplanets, a significant number orbit in the habitable zone of their star. Many of them are gas giants lacking a rocky surface and solid water reservoirs necessary for life as we know it. The search for…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-07-09 Zoltan Dencs , Vera Dobos , Zsolt Regaly

We explore the potential multistability of the climate for a planet around the habitable zone. We focus on conditions reminiscent to those of the Earth system, but our investigation aims at presenting a general methodology for dealing with…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-15 Valerio Lucarini , Salvatore Pascale , Robert Boschi , Edilbert Kirk , Nicolas Iro

Dwarf stars are believed to have small protostar disk where planets may grow up. During the planet formation stage, embryos undergoing type I migration are expected to be stalled at inner edge of magnetic inactive disk ($a_{\rm crit} \sim…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-20 Su Wang , Ji-Lin Zhou

The varied surfaces and atmospheres of planets make them interesting places to live, explore, and study from afar. Unfortunately, the great distance to exoplanets makes it impossible to resolve their disk with current or near-term…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2024-02-01 Nicolas B. Cowan , Yuka Fujii

Recent advances in space and ground-based facilities now enable atmospheric characterization of a selected sample of rocky exoplanets. These atmospheres offer key insights into planetary formation and evolution, but their interpretation…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-07-29 Leonardos Gkouvelis , Francisco J. Pozuelos , Thomas Drant , Mohammad Farhat , Meng Tian , Can Akın

A planet's climate can be strongly affected by its orbital eccentricity and obliquity. Here we use a 1-dimensional energy balance model modified to include a simple runaway greenhouse (RGH) parameterization to explore the effects of these…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-02-19 Igor Palubski , Aomawa Shields , Russell Deitrick

Recent detection of exoplanets with Earth-like insolation attracts growing interest in how common Earth-like aqua planets are beyond the solar system. While terrestrial planets are often assumed to capture icy or water-rich planetesimals, a…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-07-01 Tadahiro Kimura , Masahiro Ikoma

Astronomers have discovered a handful of exoplanets with rocky bulk compositions but orbiting so close to their host star that the surface of the planet must be at least partially molten. It is expected that the dayside of such "lava…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2022-09-21 Charles-Édouard Boukaré , Nicolas B. Cowan , James Badro

As of 2025, over 6000 planets are known to orbit stars other than our Sun. We can measure their sizes and orbital periods, infer their masses and temperatures, and constrain their compositions. Based on these data, about 1% of extrasolar…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-10-13 Floris van der Tak

Understanding the set of conditions that allow rocky planets to have liquid water on their surface -- in the form of lakes, seas or oceans -- is a major scientific step to determine the fraction of planets potentially suitable for the…

Recent imaging campaigns indicate the likely existence of massive planets (~ 1-10 MJ) on ~1000 year orbits about a few percent of stars. Such objects are not easily explained in most current planet formation models. In this Letter we use…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 Caleb Scharf , Kristen Menou

Planets in the habitable zone of lower-mass stars are often assumed to be in a state of tidally synchronized rotation, which would considerably affect their putative habitability. Although thermal tides cause Venus to rotate retrogradely,…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-02-24 Jérémy Leconte , Hanbo Wu , Kristen Menou , Norman Murray

Arid terrestrial exoplanets are potentially abundant and are thus interesting targets in the search for life. In particular, M-dwarf planets such as those in the TRAPPIST-1 system may possess limited surface water, whereas early solar…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2026-04-21 Haskelle T. White-Gianella , Joshua Krissansen-Totton

Dynamical instabilities among giant planets are thought to be nearly ubiquitous, and culminate in the ejection of one or more planets into interstellar space. Here we perform N-body simulations of dynamical instabilities while accounting…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2023-06-28 Sean N. Raymond , Andre Izidoro , Nathan A. Kaib

Kepler's observation shows that many of the detected planets are super-Earths. They are inside a range of critical masses overlapping the core masses (2-20 $M_{\bigoplus}$), which would trigger the runaway accretion and develop the gas…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2021-12-08 Wei Zhong , Cong Yu

We compute that extrasolar minor planets can retain much of their internal H_2O during their host star's red giant evolution. The eventual accretion of a water-rich body or bodies onto a helium white dwarf might supply an observable amount…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-18 M. Jura , S. Xu

The climates of terrestrial planets with a small amount of water on their surface, called land planets, are significantly different from the climates of planets having a large amount of surface water. Land planets have a higher runaway…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2021-11-29 T. Kodama , H. Genda , J. Leconte , A. Abe-Ouchi

The aim of my dissertation is to investigate habitability in extra-Solar Systems. Most of the time, only planets are considered as possible places where extraterrestrial life can emerge and evolve, however, their moons could be inhabited,…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2017-04-26 Vera Dobos