Washington University in St. Louis | 2016 June 28
[img3="Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech"]https://source.wustl.edu/wp-content/upl ... 710-1.jpeg[/img3][hr][/hr]The media often imply that the goal of the hunt for extrasolar planets is to find a rocky planet about the size of Earth orbiting a star like the sun at a distance that would allow liquid water to persist on its surface. In other words, the goal is to find Earth 2.0.
But there are reasons to be interested in the other worlds even if they couldn’t possibly harbor life. The hot, rocky planets, for example, offer rare and precious clues to the character and evolution of the early Earth.
The Kepler satellite has detected more than 100 hot, rocky planets orbiting close to their stars. If these planets formed from interstellar clouds with Earth-like abundances of volatile elements, like hydrogen, water and carbon dioxide, these planets might have steam atmospheres.
Steaming a rocky planet wouldn’t just press out the wrinkles. Because the rock-forming elements dissolve in steam to different extents, steaming could, in principle, alter the planet’s bulk composition, density and internal structure, especially if all or part of the rock-bearing steam atmosphere was then lost to space. ...
Solubility of Rock in Steam Atmospheres of Planets - Bruce Fegley Jr et al
- Astrophysical Journal 824(2):103 (20 June 2016) DOI: 10.3847/0004-637X/824/2/103
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1602.00658 > 01 Feb 2016 (v1), 26 Mar 2016 (v2)