Related papers: Interior Dynamics and Thermal Evolution of Mars --…
Transiting planets provide a unique opportunity to study the atmospheres of extra-solar planets. Radiative hydrodynamical models of the atmosphere provide a crucial link between the physical characteristics of the atmosphere and the…
The presence of rocky exoplanets with a large refractory carbon inventory is predicted by chemical evolution models of protoplanetary disks of stars with photospheric C/O >0.65, and by models studying the radial transport of refractory…
Pressure is a key parameter in the physics and chemistry of planet formation and evolution. Previous studies have erroneously assumed that internal pressures monotonically increase with the mass of a body. Using smoothed particle…
A radiative-dynamic positive feedback mechanism (Wind Enhanced Interaction of Radiation and Dust: WEIRD) for localized Mars dust disturbances was previously found to operate in highly idealized numerical experiments. Numerical simulations…
The impact of the inner structure and thermal history of planets on their observable features, such as luminosity or magnetic field, crucially depends on the poorly known heat and charge transport properties of their internal layers. The…
The topic of the present study is combining a dynamic model of a protoplanetary disk with the computations of radiation transfer for obtaining synthetic spectra and disk images suitable for immediate comparison of the model with…
The standard formation model of close-in low-mass planets involves efficient inward migration followed by growth through giant impacts after the protoplanetary gas disk disperses. While detailed N-body simulations have enhanced our…
One of the main objectives of the Mars Exploration Program is to search for evidence of past or current life on the planet. To achieve this, Mars exploration has been focusing on regions that may have liquid or frozen water. A set of…
We show that contrary to what is expected from 1D stationary model atmospheres, 3D hydrodynamical modeling predicts a considerable influence of convection on the spectral properties of late-type giants. This is due to the fact that…
Young terrestrial planets, when they are still embedded in a circumstellar disk, accumulate an atmosphere of nebula gas. The evolution and eventual evaporation of the protoplanetary disk affect the structure and dynamics of the planetary…
In the last 15 years, since the discovery of the first low-mass planets beyond the solar system, there has been tremendous progress in understanding the diversity of (super-)Earth and sub-Neptune exoplanets. Especially the influence of the…
The recent discoveries of terrestrial exoplanets and super-Earths extending over a broad range of orbital and physical parameters suggest that these planets will span a wide range of climatic regimes. Characterization of the atmospheres of…
Understanding when global glaciations occur on Earth-like planets is a major challenge in climate evolution research. Most models of how greenhouse gases like CO2 evolve with time on terrestrial planets are deterministic, but the complex,…
We review our current understanding of the interior structure and thermal evolution of Saturn, with a focus on recent results in the Cassini era. There has been important progress in understanding physical inputs, including equations of…
By means of three dimensional, high resolution hydrodynamical simulations we study the orbital evolution of weakly eccentric or inclined low-mass protoplanets embedded in gaseous discs subject to thermal diffusion. We consider both…
We present the fundamentals of geometrothermodynamics, an approach to study the properties of thermodynamic systems in terms of differential geometric concepts. It is based, on the one hand, upon the well-known contact structure of the…
Mars exploration motivates the search for extraterrestrial life, the development of space technologies, and the design of human missions and habitations. Here we seek new insights and pose unresolved questions relating to the natural…
Mars, Venus and Earth are expected to have started in a hot molten state. Here, we discuss how these three terrestrial planets diverged in their evolution and what mechanisms could be the cause. We discuss that early-on after magma ocean…
We apply a model for sand dunes to calculate formation of dunes on Mars under the present Martian atmospheric conditions. We find that different dune shapes as those imaged by Mars Global Surveyor could have been formed by the action of…
A major goal in the search for extraterrestrial life is the detection of liquid water on the surface of exoplanets. On terrestrial planets, volcanic outgassing is a significant source of atmospheric and surface water and a major contributor…