Related papers: Oldhamite: a new link in mantle for C-O-S-Ca cycle…
Carbon dioxide is one of the major contributors to the radiative forcing, increasing both the temperature and the humidity of Earth's atmosphere. If the stellar irradiance increases and water becomes abundant in the stratosphere of an…
A high fraction of carbon bound in solid carbonaceous material is observed to exist in bodies formed in the cold outskirts of the solar nebula, while bodies in the terrestrial planets region contain nearly none. We study the fate of the…
Goethite, {\alpha}-FeOOH, is a major component among oxidized iron species, called rust, which formed as a product of metabolism of anoxygenic prokaryotes (1, 2) inhabiting the Earth from about 3.8 billion years (Gy) ago until the Great…
The models that most successfully reproduce the orbital architecture of the Solar System terrestrial planets start from a narrow annulus of material that grows into embryos and then planets. However, it is not clear how this ring model can…
Comets provide a valuable window into the chemical and physical conditions at the time of their formation in the young solar system. We seek insights into where and when these objects formed by comparing the range of abundances observed for…
We use a statistical-thermodynamic model to investigate the formation and composition of noble-gas-rich clathrates on Pluto's surface. By considering an atmospheric composition close to that of today's Pluto and a broad range of surface…
The late stages of stellar evolution from asymptotic giant branch stars to planetary nebulae are now known to be an active phase of molecular synthesis. Over 80 gas-phase molecules have been detected through rotational transitions in the…
Understanding the formation of carbonyl sulfide (OCS) in interstellar ices is key to constrain the sulfur chemistry in the interstellar medium (ISM), since it is the only ice S-bearing molecule securely detected thus far. Two general…
Photochemical hazes are suspected to obscure molecular features, such as water, from detection in the transmission spectra of exoplanets with atmospheric temperatures < 800 K. The opacities of laboratory produced organic compounds (tholins)…
Earth's modern atmosphere is highly oxygenated and is a remotely detectable signal of its surface biosphere. However, the lifespan of oxygen-based biosignatures in Earth's atmosphere remains uncertain, particularly for the distant future.…
Silicon and Mg in differentiated rocky bodies exhibit heavy isotope enrichments that have been attributed to evaporation of partially or entirely molten planetesimals. We evaluate the mechanisms of planetesimal evaporation in the early…
There are many indications that anthropogenic global warming poses a serious threat to our civilization and its ecological support systems. Ideally this problem will be overcome by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Various space-based…
It is possible that the formation of the Oort Cloud dates back to the earliest epochs of solar system history. At that time, the Sun was almost certainly a member of the stellar cluster, where it was born. Since the solar birth cluster is…
The composition of the lower mantle $-$ comprising 56% of Earth's volume $-$ remains poorly constrained. Among the major elements, Mg/Si ratios ranging from $\sim$0.9$-$1.1, such as in rocky solar-system building blocks (or chondrites), to…
Ultrarefractory (UR) phases in CAIs could have formed at higher T compared to common CAI minerals and thus they potentially provide constraints on very high-T processes in the solar nebula. We report a detailed characterization of an UR…
Molecular oxygen has been confirmed as the fourth most abundant molecule in cometary material O$_2$/H$_2$O $\sim 4$ %) and is thought to have a primordial nature, i.e., coming from the interstellar cloud from which our solar system was…
Circumstellar disks have long been regarded as windows into planetary systems. The advent of high sensitivity, high resolution imaging in the submillimetre where both the solid and gas components of disks can be detected opens up new…
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…
We propose a mechanism for the oxidation of gaseous CO into CO2 occurring on the surface mineral hematite (Fe2O3(s)) in hot, CO2-rich planetary atmospheres, such as Venus. This mechanism is likely to constitute an important source of…
The detection of O2+ and O+ ions over Saturn's main rings by the Cassini INMS and CAPS instruments at Saturn orbit insertion (SOI) in 2004 confirmed the existence of the ring atmosphere and ionosphere. The source mechanism was suggested to…