Related papers: Ice Giants
The brightness of Neptune is often found to be in accordance with an adiabatic interior, while the low luminosity of Uranus challenges this assumption. Here we apply revised equation of state data of hydrogen, helium, and water and compute…
We compute grids of radiative-convective model atmospheres for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune over a range of intrinsic fluxes and surface gravities. The atmosphere grids serve as an upper boundary condition for models of the thermal…
In this chapter we summarize current knowledge of the internal structure of giant planets. We concentrate on the importance of heavy elements and their role in determining the planetary composition and internal structure, in planet…
The shapes of fluid planets bear the signatures of rotational flattening and atmospheric flows. Precise knowledge of their shapes and wind profiles may therefore reveal their interior rotation rates. We re-examine this idea for the ice…
Planets of 1-4 times Earth's size on orbits shorter than 100 days exist around 30-50% of all Sun-like stars. In fact, the Solar System is particularly outstanding in its lack of "hot super-Earths" (or "mini-Neptunes"). These planets -- or…
We used {\sl \textup{ab initio}} molecular dynamics simulations to calculate the high-pressure melting temperatures of the three potential core components. The planetary adiabats were obtained by solving the hydrostatic equations in a…
Demixing properties of planetary major constituents influence the interior structure and evolution of planets. Comparing experimental and computational data on the miscibility of hydrogen and water to adiabatic profiles suggests phase…
The hundreds of exoplanets that have been discovered in the past two decades offer a new perspective on planetary structure. Instead of being the archetypal examples of planets, those of our Solar System are merely possible outcomes of…
Recent studies of solar system formation suggest that the solar system's giant planets formed and migrated in the protoplanetary disk to reach resonant orbits with all planets inside 15 AU from the Sun. After the gas disk's dispersal,…
There are now many known exoplanets with Msin(i) within a factor of two of Neptune's, including the transiting planets GJ436b and HAT-P-11b. Planets in this mass-range are different from their more massive cousins in several ways that are…
The interior composition and structure of Uranus are ambiguous. It is unclear whether Uranus is composed of fully differentiated layers dominated by an icy mantle or has smooth compositional gradients. The Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP),…
Exoplanet demographics increasingly reveal that planetary properties depend not only on local irradiation and composition but also on the wider system architecture. We analyse a sample of Neptune-sized short-period planets with…
Gas giant planets, if present, are the most massive objects in a planetary system and play a pivotal role in shaping its overall architecture. The formation of these planets has constantly been a central issue in planetary science.…
The intrinsic luminosity of Uranus is a factor of 10 less than that of Neptune, an observation that standard giant planetary evolution models, which assume negligible viscosity, fail to capture. Here we show that more than half of the…
Using density functional molecular dynamics free energy calculations, we show that the body-centered-cubic phase of superionic ice previously believed to be the only phase is in fact thermodynamically unstable compared to a novel phase with…
Observations point to a correlation between outer giants and inner sub-Neptunes, unexplained by simulations so far. We utilize N-body simulations including pebble and gas accretion as well as planetary migration to investigate how the gas…
Uranus and Neptune are still poorly understood. Their gravitational fields, rotation periods, atmosphere dynamics, and internal structures are not well determined. In this paper we present empirical structure models of Uranus and Neptune…
Sub-Neptune planets, with sizes and masses between those of Earth and Neptune, dominate the exoplanet population. Sub-Neptunes are expected to be the most diverse family of the exoplanet population, potentially including rocky gas dwarfs,…
The formation and evolution of haze layers in planetary atmospheres play a critical role in shaping their chemical composition, radiative balance, and optical properties. In the outer solar system, the atmospheres of Titan and the giant…
In the pebble accretion scenario, the pebbles that form planets drift inward from the outer disk regions, carrying water ice with them. At the water ice line, the water ice on the inward drifting pebbles evaporates and is released into the…