Related papers: Comparative Evolution of Jupiter and Saturn

The incredible longevity of Cassini's orbital mission at Saturn has provided the most comprehensive exploration of a seasonal giant planet to date. This review explores Saturn's changing global temperatures, composition, and aerosol…

As part of our ongoing initiative on accurately calculating the accretion rate of planetesimals in the core-accretion model, we demonstrated in a recent article that when the calculations include the gravitational force of the Sun (the…

Royal Society Discussion Meeting (2013) `Characterizing exoplanets'. Of the 900+ confirmed exoplanets discovered since 1995 for which we have constraints on their mass (i.e., not including Kepler candidates), 75% have masses larger than…

The composition of an atmosphere has integrated the geological history of the entire planetary body. However, the long-term evolutions of the atmospheres of the terrestrial planets are not well documented. For Earth, there were until…

Giant planets are thought to have cores in their deep interiors, and the division into a heavy-element core and hydrogen-helium envelope is applied in both formation and structure models. We show that the primordial internal structure…

Turbulent transport driven by secular shear instabilities can lead to enhanced vertical mixing in hot Jupiter atmospheres, impacting their cloudiness, chemistry and overall vertical structure. We discuss the turbulent regime expected and…

The observed masses and radii of sub-Neptunes are typically explained by the gas dwarf and the water world scenarios. While their evolutionary history on a population level has been proposed as a method to distinguish between these…

We present phase curves of Jupiter from 0-140 degrees as measured in multiple optical bandpasses by Cassini/ISS during the Millennium flyby of Jupiter in late 2000 to early 2001. Phase curves are of interest for studying the energy balance…

As they keep cooling and contracting, Solar System giant planets radiate more energy than they receive from the Sun. Applying the first and second principles of thermodynamics, one can determine their cooling rate, luminosity, and…

Hydrogen-helium mixtures at conditions of Jupiter's interior are studied with first-principles computer simulations. The resulting equation of state (EOS) implies that Jupiter possesses a central core of 14-18 Earth masses of heavier…

Oxygen is the most common element after hydrogen and helium in Jupiter's atmosphere, and may have been the primary condensable (as water ice) in the protoplanetary disk. Prior to the Juno mission, in situ measurements of Jupiter's water…

The evolution of a giant planet within the stellar envelope of a main-sequence star is investigated as a possible mechanism for enhancing the stellar metallicities of the parent stars of extrasolar planetary systems. Three-dimensional…

The atmospheres of the terrestrial planets are known to have been modified as a consequence of the impact degassing and atmospheric erosion during the late accretion. Despite the commonality of these processes, there are distinct gaps --…

As the closest transiting hot Jupiter to Earth, HD 189733b has been the benchmark planet for atmospheric characterization. It has also been the anchor point for much of our theoretical understanding of exoplanet atmospheres from…

We present a search for helium in the upper atmospheres of three sub-Neptune size planets to investigate the origins of these ubiquitous objects. The detection of helium for a low density planet would be strong evidence for the presence of…

Interior models of gas giants in the Solar System traditionally assume a fully convective molecular hydrogen envelope. However, recent observations from the Juno mission suggest a possible depletion of alkali metals in Jupiter's molecular…

In an atmosphere, a cloud condensation region is characterized by a strong vertical gradient in the abundance of the related condensing species. On Earth, the ensuing gradient of mean molecular weight has relatively few dynamical…

It has been proposed that the enrichment in noble gases found by Galileo in Jupiter's atmosphere can be explained by their delivery inside cold planetesimals. We propose instead that this is a sign that the planet formed in a chemically…

We investigate the chemical composition of the solar system's giant planets atmospheres using a physical formation model with chemistry. The model incorporate disk evolution, pebbles and gas accretion, type I and II migration, simplified…

We present highlights from a large set of simulations of a hot Jupiter atmosphere, nominally based on HD 209458b, aimed at exploring both the evolution of the deep atmosphere, and the acceleration of the zonal flow or jet. We find the…