Related papers: Bond strengthening in dense H2O and implications t…
The ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune are assumed to contain large amounts of planetary ices such as water, methane, and ammonia. The properties of mixtures of such ices at the extreme pressures and temperatures of planetary interiors…
Using ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, we calculate the physical properties of MgO at conditions extending from the ones encountered in the Earth mantle up to the ones anticipated in giant planet interiors such as Jupiter. We pay…
Planetary obliquity (axial tilt) plays an important role in regulating the climate evolution and habitability of water-covered planets. Despite the suspicion of large obliquities in several exoplanetary systems, this phenomenon remains hard…
The oxidation of rocky planet surfaces and atmospheres, which arises from the twin forces of stellar nucleosynthesis and gravitational differentiation, is a universal process of key importance to habitability and exoplanet biosignature…
High obliquity planets represent potentially extreme limits of terrestrial climate, as they exhibit large seasonality, a reversed annual-mean pole-to-equator gradient of stellar heating, and novel cryospheres. A suite of 3-D global climate…
The variation in local atomic structure and chemical bonding of ZrHx (x=0.15, 0.30, 1.16) magnetron sputtered thin films are investigated by Zr K-edge (1s) X-ray absorption near-edge structure and extended X-ray absorption fine structure…
Understanding the surface temperature and interior structure of cold-to-temperate sub-Neptunes is critical for assessing their habitability, yet direct observations are challenging. In this study, we investigate the impact of water…
The core accretion theory for giant planet formation predicts enrichment of elemental abundances in planetary envelopes caused by runaway accretion of planetesimals, which is consistent with measured super-solar abundances of C, N, P, S,…
Planets with large bodies of water on their surface will have more temperate and stable climates, and such planets are the ideal places for life-as-we-know-it to arise and evolve. A key science case for the Habitable Worlds Observatory…
Astrophysical measurements have shown that some stars have sufficiently high carbon-to-oxygen ratios such that the planets they host would be mainly composed of carbides instead of silicates. We studied the behavior of silicon carbide in…
Understanding the chemical interactions between water and Mg-silicates or iron is essential to constrain the interiors of water-rich planets. Hydration effects have, however, been mostly neglected by the astrophysics community so far. As…
Skins of water and ice share the same attribute of supersolidity characterized by the identical H-O vibration frequency of 3450 cm-1. Molecular undercoordination and inter-electron-pair repulsion shortens the H-O bond and lengthen the O:H…
Ice desorption affects the evolution of the gas-phase chemistry during the protostellar stage, and also determines the chemical composition of comets forming in circumstellar disks. From observations, most volatile species are found in…
The hydrogen-bond (H-bond) network of high-pressure water is investigated by neural-network-based molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with the first-principles accuracy. The static structure factors (SSFs) of water at three densities, i.e.,…
The hydrogen bond (HB) network of water under confinement has been predicted to have distinct structures from that of bulk water. However, direct measurement of the structure has not been achieved. Here, we present experimental evidence of…
Understanding the history and evolution of small bodies, such as dust grains and comets, in planet-forming disks is very important to reveal the architectural laws responsible for the creation of planetary systems. These small bodies in…
The physical nature and the correct definition of hydrogen bond (H-bond) are considered.\,\,The influence of H-bonds on the thermodynamic, kinetic, and spectroscopic properties of water is analyzed.\,\,The conventional model of H-bonds as…
We examine the possibility that icy super-Earth mass planets, formed over long time scales (0.1--1~Gyr) at large distances ($\sim$ 200--1000~AU) from their host stars, will develop massive H-rich atmospheres. Within the interior of these…
Mid-infrared spectroscopy is one of the few ways to observe the composition of the terrestial planet forming zone, the inner few au, of proto-planetary disks. The species currently detected in the disk atmosphere, for example CO, CO2, H2O…
Most water in the universe may be superionic, and its thermodynamic and transport properties are crucial for planetary science but difficult to probe experimentally or theoretically. We use machine learning and free energy methods to…