Evidence for Water in the Rocky Debris of a Disrupted Extrasolar Minor Planet [PDF]
Science, 2013 Remnants of a Water-Bearing World Stars like the Sun end their lives as white dwarfs. Farihi et al. (p. 218 ) used detailed spectroscopic analysis of a debris-accreting white dwarf, along with knowledge that such systems accrete this debris ...
J. Farihi, B. T. Gansicke, D. Koester
semanticscholar +7 more sources
Three regimes of extrasolar planet radius inferred from host star metallicities. [PDF]
Nature, 2014 Approximately half of the extrasolar planets (exoplanets) with radii less than four Earth radii are in orbits with short periods. Despite their sheer abundance, the compositions of such planets are largely unknown.
Buchhave LA +8 more
europepmc +5 more sources
Large planets may not form fractionally large moons. [PDF]
Nat Commun, 2022 One of the unique aspects of Earth is that it has a fractionally large Moon, which is thought to have formed from a Moon-forming disk generated by a giant impact.
Nakajima M, Genda H, Asphaug E, Ida S.
europepmc +3 more sources
Structure and density of silicon carbide to 1.5 TPa and implications for extrasolar planets. [PDF]
Nat Commun, 2022 Using ramp compression, silicon carbide was compressed to pressures of 1.5 terapascals, more than seven times higher than previous work. The results show that large carbon-rich exoplanets would be ~10% less dense than corresponding rocky planets.
Kim D +12 more
europepmc +2 more sources
The Tides of Enceladus' Porous Core. [PDF]
J Geophys Res Planets, 2022 Abstract The inferred density of Enceladus' core, together with evidence of hydrothermal activity within the moon, suggests that the core is porous. Tidal dissipation in an unconsolidated core has been proposed as the main source of Enceladus' geological activity.
Rovira-Navarro M +4 more
europepmc +2 more sources
Meta-modelling the climate of dry tide-locked rocky planets [PDF]
Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2022 Rocky planets hosted by close-in extrasolar systems are likely to be tidally locked in 1:1 spin-orbit resonance, a configuration where they exhibit permanent dayside and nightside.
P. Auclair-Desrotour +2 more
semanticscholar +1 more source
The Detectability of Rocky Planet Surface and Atmosphere Composition with the JWST: The Case of LHS 3844b [PDF]
Astronomical Journal, 2022 The spectroscopic characterization of terrestrial exoplanets over a wide spectral range from the near- to the mid-infrared will be made possible for the first time with the JWST. One challenge is that it is not known a priori whether such planets possess
Emily A. Whittaker +9 more
semanticscholar +1 more source
CHEMICAL ABUNDANCES IN THE EXTERNALLY POLLUTED WHITE DWARF GD 40: EVIDENCE OF A ROCKY EXTRASOLAR MINOR PLANET [PDF]
The Astrophysical Journal, 2010 We present Keck/HIRES data with model atmosphere analysis of the helium-dominated polluted white dwarf GD 40, in which we measure atmospheric abundances relative to helium of 9 elements: H, O, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, and Fe. Apart from hydrogen whose association with the other contaminants is uncertain, this material most likely accreted from GD 40's ...
Klein, B. +4 more
openaire +2 more sources
A water budget dichotomy of rocky protoplanets from 26Al-heating [PDF]
Nature Astronomy, 2019 In contrast to the water-poor planets of the inner Solar System, stochasticity during planetary formation1,2 and order-of-magnitude deviations in exoplanet volatile contents3 suggest that rocky worlds engulfed in thick volatile ice layers4,5 are the ...
T. Lichtenberg +6 more
semanticscholar +2 more sources
Potential Atmospheric Compositions of TRAPPIST-1 c Constrained by JWST/MIRI Observations at 15 μm
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2023 The first James Webb Space Telescope observations of TRAPPIST-1 c showed a secondary eclipse depth of 421 ± 94 ppm at 15 μ m, which is consistent with a bare rock surface or a thin, O _2 -dominated, low-CO _2 atmosphere. Here we further explore potential
Andrew P. Lincowski +15 more
doaj +1 more source