Related papers: Most Super-Earths Have Less Than 3% Water
Super-Earths span a wide range of bulk densities, indicating a diversity in interior conditions beyond that seen in the solar system. In particular, an emerging population of low-density super-Earths may be explained by volatile-rich…
Should we expect most habitable planets to share the Earth's marbled appearance? For a planetary surface to boast extensive areas of both land and water, a delicate balance must be struck between the volume of water it retains and the…
We review the state of knowledge on the origin of Earth's water. Empirical constraints come from chemical and isotopic measurements of solar system bodies and of Earth itself. Dynamical models have revealed pathways for water delivery to…
In the last few years astronomical surveys have expanded the reach of planetary science into the realm of small and dense extrasolar worlds. These share a number of characteristics with the terrestrial and icy planetary objects of the Solar…
Some low-density exoplanets are thought to be water-rich worlds that formed beyond the snow line of their protoplanetary disc, possibly accreting coequal portions of rock and water. However, the compositions of bodies within the Solar…
Super-Earths are the most abundant planets known to date and are characterized by having sizes between that of Earth and Neptune, typical orbital periods of less than 100 days and gaseous envelopes that are often massive enough to…
Exoplanet surveys around M dwarfs have detected a growing number of exoplanets with Earth-like insolation. It is expected that some of those planets are rocky planets with the potential for temperate climates favourable to surface liquid…
In order to test planetary accretion and differentiation scenarios, we integrated a multistage core-mantle differentiation model with N-body accretion simulations. Impacts between embryos and planetesimals result in magma ocean formation…
The population of close-in super-Earths, with gas mass fractions of up to 10% represents a challenge for planet formation theory: how did they avoid runaway gas accretion and collapsing to hot Jupiters despite their core masses being in the…
The atmosphere of a terrestrial planet that is replenished with secondary gases should have accumulated hydrogen-rich gas from its protoplanetary disk. Although a giant impact blows off a large fraction of the primordial atmosphere of a…
Tracing the compositional link between terrestrial super-Earths and their host stars provides clues to their dominant formation pathway. By constraining the stellar abundances of refractory elements, we can predict the core mass fractions…
The riddle posed by super-Earths (1-4$R_\oplus$, 2-20$M_\oplus$) is that they are not Jupiters: their core masses are large enough to trigger runaway gas accretion, yet somehow super-Earths accreted atmospheres that weigh only a few percent…
One of the unique features associated with the Earth is that the fraction of its surface covered by land is comparable to that spanned by its oceans and other water bodies. Here, we investigate how extraterrestrial biospheres depend on the…
Super-puffs are a class of low-mass, large-radius planets that have challenged planet formation and evolution models. Their high inferred H/He mass fractions, required to explain their physical sizes, would lead to rapid atmospheric escape,…
It remains to be ascertained whether sub-Neptune exoplanets primarily possess hydrogen-rich atmospheres or whether a population of H$_2$O-rich "water worlds" lurks in their midst. Addressing this question requires improved modeling of…
Lava worlds are a potential emerging population of Super-Earths that are on close-in orbits around their host stars with likely partially molten mantles. To date, few studies address the impact of magma on the observed properties of a…
We determined the metal/silicate partition coefficients of hydrogen and carbon, DH and DC, simultaneously under typical conditions of Earth's core formation. Experiments demonstrate that both DH and DC diminish in the presence of carbon and…
Recent observations have found a valley in the size distribution of close-in super-Earths that is interpreted as a signpost that close-in super-Earths are mostly rocky in composition. However, new models predict that planetesimals should…
Terrestrial planets, with silicate mantles and metallic cores, are likely to obtain water and carbon compounds during accretion. Here I examine the conditions that allow early formation of a surface water ocean (simultaneous with cooling to…
We develop a pebble-driven model to study the formation and evolution of planets around stars in the mass range of 0.08 and 1 solar mass. The growth and migration of a large number of individual protoplanetary embryos are simulated in a…