Related papers: Interior Structure of Water Planets: Implications …
The atmospheres of exoplanets reveal all their properties beyond mass, radius, and orbit. Based on bulk densities, we know that exoplanets larger than 1.5 Earth radii must have gaseous envelopes, hence atmospheres. We discuss contemporary…
We study the transport of methane in the external water envelopes surrounding water-rich super-Earths and estimate its outgassing into the atmosphere. We investigate the influence of methane on the thermodynamics and mechanics of the water…
With observational efforts moving from the discovery into the characterisation mode, systematic campaigns that cover large ranges of global stellar and planetary parameters will be needed. We aim to uncover cloud formation trends and…
Planet formation impacts exoplanet atmospheres by accreting metals in solid form, leading to atmospheric C/O and S/N ratios that deviate from their host stars. Recent observations indicate differing metal abundances in planetary atmospheres…
Most exoplanets with a few Earth radii are more inflated than bare-rock planets with the same mass, indicating a substantial volatile amount. Neither the origin of the volatiles nor the planet's bulk composition can be constrained from the…
Planets intermediate in size between the Earth and Neptune, and orbiting closer to their host stars than Mercury does the Sun, are the most common type of planet revealed by exoplanet surveys over the last quarter century. Results from…
Modeling the interior of exoplanets is essential to go further than the conclusions provided by mean density measurements. In addition to the still limited precision on the planets' fundamental parameters, models are limited by the…
Energy limits that delineate the `habitable zone' for exoplanets depend on a given exoplanet's net planetary albedo (or `Bond albedo'). We here demonstrate that the planetary albedo of an observed exoplanet is limited by the above-cloud…
Heavy elements, even though its smaller constituent, are crucial to understand Jupiter formation history. Interior models are used to determine the amount of heavy elements in Jupiter interior, nevertheless this range is still subject to…
Many atmospheres (cool stars, brown dwarfs, giant planets, extrasolar planets) are predominately composed of molecular hydrogen and helium. H$_2{}^{16}$O is one of the best measured molecules in extrasolar planetary atmospheres to date and…
From an astrobiological point of view, special attention has been paid to the probability of habitable planets in extrasolar systems. The purpose of this study is to constrain a possible range of the mass of a terrestrial planet that can…
The formation of the giant planets in our solar system, and likely a majority of giant exoplanets, is commonly explained by the accretion of nebular hydrogen and helium onto a large core of terrestrial-like composition. The fate of this…
The radii and orbital periods of 4000+ confirmed/candidate exoplanets have been precisely measured by the Kepler mission. The radii show a bimodal distribution, with two peaks corresponding to smaller planets (likely rocky) and larger…
Of the many recently discovered terrestrial exoplanets, some are expected to harbor moderate water mass fractions of a few percent. The formation pathways that can produce planets with these water mass fractions are not fully understood.…
Measurements of exoplanetary masses and radii have revealed a population of massive super-Earths --- planets sufficiently large that, according to one dimensional models, they should have turned into gas giants. To better understand the…
Out of the more than 5,000 detected exoplanets a considerable number belongs to a category called 'mini-Neptunes'. Interior models of these planets suggest that they have some primordial, H-He dominated atmosphere. As this type of planet…
Terrestrial exoplanets in the canonical habitable zone may have a variety of initial water fractions due to random volatile delivery by planetesimals. If the total planetary water complement is high, the entire surface may be covered in…
Constraining the planetary composition is essential for exoplanetary characterization. In this paper, we use a statistical analysis to determine the characteristic maximum (threshold) radii for various compositions for exoplanets with…
Recent observations of planetary atmospheres in HAT-P-32 b and HAT-P-67 b reveal extensive outflows reaching up to hundreds of planetary radii. The helium 1083 nm light curves for these planets, captured across their full orbits, show…
Planet formation models suggest broad compositional diversity in the sub-Neptune/super-Earth regime, with a high likelihood for large atmospheric metal content (> 100 x Solar). With this comes the prevalence of numerous plausible bulk…