Related papers: A heterogeneous lithosphere on Venus
A critically important process affecting the climate evolution and potential habitability of an exoplanet is atmospheric escape, in which high-energy radiation from a star drives the escape of hydrogen atoms and other light elements from a…
The Venus thermal radiation spectrum exhibits the signature of $CO_2$ absorption bands. By means of inversion techniques, those bands enable the retrieval of atmospheric temperature profiles. We have analyzed VIRTIS-M-IR night-side data…
The long-term evolution of hydrogen-dominated atmospheres of sub-Neptune-like planets is mostly controlled by two factors: a slow dissipation of the gravitational energy acquired at the formation (known as thermal evolution) and atmospheric…
Life in the clouds of Venus, if present in sufficiently high abundance, must be affecting the atmospheric chemistry. It has been proposed that abundant Venusian life could obtain energy from its environment using three possible sulfur…
We review the formation of large-scale heterogeneity in the solid Earth from the magma ocean phase to the present day, focusing on lower-mantle structure and evolution, as well as continental formation and its impact on interior-exterior…
Large terrestrial planets are expected to have muted topography and deep oceans, implying that most super-Earths should be entirely covered in water, so-called waterworlds. This is important because waterworlds lack a silicate weathering…
Due to strong irradiation, hot rocky exoplanets are able to sustain lava oceans. Direct interaction between these oceans and overlying atmospheres can provide insight into planetary interiors. In order to fully understand how the…
Earth, Mars, and Venus, irradiated by an evolving Sun, have had fascinating but diverging histories of habitability. Although only Earth's surface is considered to be habitable today, all three planets might have simultaneously been…
Comparatively little is known about atmospheric chemistry on Uranus and Neptune, because remote spectral observations of these cold, distant ``Ice Giants'' are challenging, and each planet has only been visited by a single spacecraft during…
Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has an Earth-like volatile cycle, but with methane playing the role of water and surface liquid reservoirs geographically isolated at high latitudes. We recreate Titan's characteristic dry hydroclimate at the…
The temperature structure of Titan's upper atmosphere exhibits large variability resulting from numerous spatially and temporally irregular external energy sources, seasonal changes, and the influence of molecular species produced via…
Aims: The long-term carbon cycle for planets with a surface entirely covered by oceans works differently from that of the present-day Earth because inefficient erosion leads to a strong dependence of the weathering rate on the rate of…
Measurements of trace-gases in planetary atmospheres help us explore chemical conditions different to those on Earth. Our nearest neighbor, Venus, has cloud decks that are temperate but hyper-acidic. We report the apparent presence of…
In the outer solar system beyond Jupiter, water ice is a dominant component of planetary bodies, and most solid objects in this region are classified as icy bodies. Icy bodies display a remarkable diversity of geological, geophysical, and…
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…
Near-term studies of Venus-like atmospheres with JWST promise to advance our knowledge of terrestrial planet evolution. However, the remote study of Venus in the Solar System and the ongoing efforts to characterize gaseous exoplanets both…
Seismic and geodynamic studies indicate that the boundary between the Earth's liquid outer core and solid mantle is not spherical, but is likely characterized by topography in the form of inverted mountains and valleys that have typical…
Exoplanets with substantial Hydrogen/Helium atmospheres have been discovered in abundance, many residing extremely close to their parent stars. The extreme irradiation levels these atmospheres experience causes them to undergo hydrodynamic…
On 5-6 June 2012, Venus will be transiting the Sun for the last time before 2117. This event is an unique opportunity to assess the feasibility of the atmospheric characterisation of Earth-size exoplanets near the habitable zone with the…
Sub-Neptunes occupy an intriguing region of planetary mass-radius space, where theoretical models of interior structure predict that they could be water-rich, where water is in steam and supercritical state. Such planets are expected to…