Related papers: The water abundance in Jupiter's equatorial zone
Observations of the Jovian upper atmosphere at high latitudes in the UV, IR and mm/sub-mm all indicate that the chemical distributions and thermal structure are broadly influenced by auroral particle precipitations. Mid-IR and UV…
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…
From modeling the evolution of disks of planetesimals under the influence of planets, it has been shown that the mass of water delivered to the Earth from beyond Jupiter's orbit could be comparable to the mass of terrestrial oceans. A…
The zonal flow in Jupiter's upper troposphere is organized into alternating retrograde and prograde jets, with a prograde (superrotating) jet at the equator. Existing models posit as the driver of the flow either differential radiative…
Thermochemical equilibrium and kinetic calculations for the trace gases CO, PH3, and SiH4 give three independent constraints on the water and total oxygen abundances of Saturn's deep atmosphere. A lower limit to the water abundance of…
Characterising the atmospheres of hot Jupiters is important in understanding the formation and migration of these exotic planets. However, there are still many open questions about the chemical and physical properties of these atmospheres.…
In spite of their long detection history, the origin of hot Jupiters remains to be resolved. While multiple dynamical evidence suggests high-eccentricity migration is most likely, conflicts remain when considering hot Jupiters as a…
Recent surveys have revealed that planets intermediate in size between Earth and Neptune ("super-Earths") are among the most common planets in the Galaxy. Atmospheric studies are the next step toward developing a comprehensive understanding…
Jupiter was imaged during the Science Demonstration of the MCAO Demonstrator (MAD) at the European Southern Observatory's UT3 Very Large Telescope unit. Io and Europa were used as natural guide stars on either side of Jupiter, separated…
A key feature of the Galilean satellite system is its monotonic decrease in bulk density with distance from Jupiter, indicating an ice mass fraction that is zero in the innermost moon Io, and about half in the outer moons Ganymede and…
The atmospheric C/O ratio of exoplanets is widely used to constrain their formation. To guarantee that the C/O ratio provides robust information, we need to accurately quantify the amount of C and O in exoplanetary atmospheres. In the case…
We present three-dimensional atmospheric circulation models of GJ 1214b, a 2.7 Earth-radius, 6.5 Earth-mass super Earth detected by the MEarth survey. Here we explore the planet's circulation as a function of atmospheric metallicity and…
The Galileo probe showed that Jupiter's atmosphere is severely depleted in neon compared to protosolar values. We show, via ab initio simulations of the partitioning of neon between hydrogen and helium phases, that the observed depletion…
The radial-dependent positions of snowlines of abundant oxygen- and carbon-bearing molecules in protoplanetary discs will result in systematic radial variations in the C/O ratios in the gas and ice. This variation is proposed as a tracer of…
For solar-system objects, ultraviolet spectroscopy has been critical in identifying sources for stratospheric heating and measuring the abundances of a variety of hydrocarbon and sulfur-bearing species, produced via photochemical…
The newly detected Earth-mass planet in the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri could potentially host life - if it has an atmosphere that supports surface liquid water. We show that thermal phase curve observations with the James Webb Space…
The sun and giant planets are generally thought to have the same helium abundance as that in the solar nebula from which they were formed 4.6 billion years ago. In contrast, the interstellar medium reflects current galactic conditions. The…
The amount and distribution of heavy elements in Jupiter gives indications on the process of its formation and evolution. Core mass and metallicity predictions however depend on the equations of state used, and on model assumptions. We…
As an exoplanet transits its host star, some of the light from the star is absorbed by the atoms and molecules in the planet's atmosphere, causing the planet to seem bigger; plotting the planet's observed size as a function of the…
The relative abundances of carbon and oxygen have long been recognized as fundamental diagnostics of stellar chemical evolution. Now, the growing number of exoplanet observations enable estimation of these elements in exoplanetary…