Related papers: Structural prediction of Fe-Mg-O compounds at Supe…
Fe, Mg, and O are among the most abundant elements in terrestrial planets. While the behavior of the Fe-O, Mg-O, and Fe-Mg binary systems under pressure have been investigated, there are still very few studies of the Fe-Mg-O ternary system…
Being a lithophile element at ambient pressure, magnesium is long believed to be immiscible with iron. A recent study by Gao et al. [1] showed that pressure turns magnesium into a siderophile element and can produce unconventional Fe-Mg…
Iron oxides are fundamental components of planet-forming materials. Understanding the Fe-O system's behavior and properties under high pressure can help us identify many new phases and states possible in exoplanetary interiors, especially…
The Fe-Si-O ternary system, central to modeling the interiors of terrestrial planets, remains poorly constrained at Terapascal (TPa) pressures characteristic of super-Earth mantles. Using a combination of crystal-structure prediction and ab…
The elemental compositions of exoplanets encode information about their formation environments and internal structures. While volatile ratios such as carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) are used to trace formation location, the rock-forming elements -…
Rocky planets are thought to comprise compounds of Mg and O as these are among the most abundant elements, but knowledge of their stable phases may be incomplete. MgO is known to be remarkably stable to very high pressure and chemically…
The Mg-Si-O system is the major Earth and rocky planet-forming system. Here, through quantum variable-composition evolutionary structure explorations, we have discovered several unexpected stable binary and ternary compounds in the Mg-Si-O…
Extrasolar planet host stars have been found to be enriched in key planet-building elements. These enrichments have the potential to drastically alter the composition of material available for terrestrial planet formation. Here we report on…
Fe-bearing MgO [(Mg$_{1-x}$Fe$_x$)O] is considered a major constituent of terrestrial exoplanets. Crystallizing in the B1 structure in the Earth's lower mantle, (Mg$_{1-x}$Fe$_x$)O undergoes a high-spin ($S=2$) to low-spin ($S=0$)…
From core to atmosphere, the oxidation states of elements in a planet shape its character. Oxygen fugacity (fO$_2$) is one parameter indicating these likely oxidation states. The ongoing search for atmospheres on rocky exoplanets benefits…
The proportions of oxygen, carbon and major rock-forming elements (e.g. Mg, Fe, Si) determine a planet's dominant mineralogy. Variation in a planet's mineralogy subsequently affects planetary mantle dynamics as well as any deep water or…
We present globally inverted pressure-temperature (P-T) phase diagrams up to 5,000 GPa for four fundamental planetary materials, Fe, MgO, SiO2, and MgSiO3, derived from logistic regression and supervised learning, together with an…
Extrasolar planetary host stars are enriched in key planet-building elements. These enrichments have the potential to drastically alter the building blocks available for terrestrial planet formation. Here we report on the combination of…
Earth's tectonic processes regulate the formation of continental crust, control its unique deep water and carbon cycles, and are vital to its surface habitability. A major driver of steady-state plate tectonics on Earth is the sinking of…
Aims: The secondary atmospheres of terrestrial planets form and evolve as a consequence of interaction with the interior over geological time. We aim to quantify the influence of planetary bulk composition on the interior--atmosphere…
Rocky planet compositions regulate planetary evolution by affecting core sizes, mantle properties, and melting behaviours. Yet, quantitative treatments of this aspect of exoplanet studies remain generally under-explored. We attempt to…
The presence of certain elements within a star, and by extension its planet, strongly impacts the formation and evolution of the planetary system. The positive correlation between a host star's iron-content and the presence of an orbiting…
Many sub-Neptune exoplanets have been believed to be composed of a thick hydrogen-dominated atmosphere and a high-temperature heavier-element-dominant core. From an assumption that there is no chemical reaction between hydrogen and…
The highest pressure form of the major Earth-forming mantle silicate is MgSiO3 post-perovskite (PPv). Understanding the fate of PPv at TPa pressures is the first step for understanding the mineralogy of super-Earths-type exoplanets,…
Despite the fact that the terrestrial planets formed from the protoplanetary disk, their compositions show marked departures from that of solar nebula condensates. Metallic cores fix oxygen fugacities ($f$O$_2$s) of the planets to 5…