Related papers: Breaking Degeneracies in Formation Histories by Me…
The bulk composition of an exoplanet is commonly inferred from its average density. For small planets, however, the average density is not unique within the range of compositions. Variations of a number of important planetary…
We have used recent surveys of the composition of exoplanet host stars to investigate the expected composition of condensed material in planetesimals formed beyond the snow line in the circumstellar nebulae of these systems. Of the major…
Atmospheric compositions of sub-Neptunes and super-Earths are often interpreted as tracers of formation location relative to volatile ice lines. However, prolonged magma oceans can chemically equilibrate with primordial atmospheres and…
We discuss the interior structure and composition of giant planets, and how this structure changes as these planets cool and contract over time. Here we define giant planets as those that have an observable hydrogen-helium envelope, which…
Gas giant planets play a fundamental role in shaping the orbital architecture of planetary systems and in affecting the delivery of volatile materials to terrestrial planets in the habitable zones. Current theories of gas giant planet…
It is reasonable to assume that the structure of a planet and the interior distribution of its components are determined by its formation history. We thus follow the growth of a planet from a small embryo through its subsequent evolution.…
Recent theoretical, numerical, and observational work have suggested that when a growing planet opens a gap in its disk the flow of gas into the gap is dominated by gas falling vertically from a height of at least one gas scale height. Our…
The composition of a planet's atmosphere is determined by its formation, evolution, and present-day insolation. A planet's spectrum therefore may hold clues on its origins. We present a "chain" of models, linking the formation of a planet…
Gas giants are the most readily detectable exoplanets but fundamental questions about their system architectures, formation, migration, and atmospheres have been unanswerable with the current generation of ground- and space-based…
Planets form from the same cloud of molecular gas and dust as their host stars. Confirming if planetary bodies acquire the same refractory element composition as their natal disc during formation, and how efficiently volatile elements are…
Despite the revolution in our knowledge resulting from the detection of planets around mature stars, we know almost nothing about planets orbiting young stars because rapid rotation and active photospheres preclude detection by radial…
We discuss our current understanding of the interior structure and thermal evolution of giant planets. This includes the gas giants, such as Jupiter and Saturn, that are primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, as well as the "ice…
Brown dwarfs serve as ideal laboratories for studying the atmospheres of giant exoplanets on wide orbits as the governing physical and chemical processes in them are nearly identical. Understanding the formation of gas giant planets is…
We investigate the origin of the measured over-abundance of alkali metals in the atmospheres of hot gas giants, relative to both their host stars and their atmospheric water abundances. We show that formation exterior to the water snow line…
More than two dozen short-period Jupiter-mass gas giant planets have been discovered around nearby solar-type stars in recent years, several of which undergo transits, making them ideal for the detection and characterization of their…
The atmospheric chemical composition of a hot Jupiter can lead to insights into where in its natal protoplanetary disk it formed and its subsequent migration pathway. We use a 1-D chemical kinetics code to compute a suite of models across a…
The composition of rocky exoplanets in the context of stars' composition provides important constraints to formation theories. In this study, we select a sample of exoplanets with mass and radius measurements with an uncertainty <25% and…
Precise abundances of 18 elements have been derived for ten stars known to host giant planets from high signal-to-noise ratio, high-resolution echelle spectroscopy. Internal uncertainties in the derived abundances are typically <=0.05 dex.…
Recent observations started revealing the compositions of protostellar discs and planets beyond the Solar System. In this paper, we explore how the compositions of terrestrial planets are affected by dynamical evolution of giant planets. We…
In order to characterize giant exoplanets and better understand their origin, knowledge of how the planet's composition depends on its mass and stellar environment is required. In this work, we simulate the thermal evolution of gaseous…