Exo-mineralogy: Predicting the interior compositions of rocky exoplanets

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Rob Spaargaren
• Tuesday 22 October 2024, 13:00-14:00
• Ryle seminar room + ONLINE - Details to be sent by email.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Dr Dolev Bashi.

On rocky planets, the atmosphere forms and evolves under constant interaction with the interior. The efficiency of this interaction, and the way it shapes the atmosphere, is dependent on the interior dynamics and surface tectonics of those planets. In trying to understand how exoplanet diversity affects these processes, the diversity of interior chemistry remains under-explored. In this talk, I will present my work on constraining the potential compositions of rocky exoplanets, and how this affects long-term evolution of the interior and surface. Rocky planets have a genetic compositional link with their host star, and stellar abundance observations, which are readily available, can be used to constrain bulk rocky exoplanet compositions. Based on these bulk compositions, thermodynamic models are used to predict their mantle mineralogy and exo-surface compositions, which can then be used in a mantle dynamics model to simulate the long-term evolution of interior dynamics and surface tectonics of these planets. I will present how accounting for compositional diversity leads to classes of planets with mantles too weak to maintain crustal recycling, planets with dense crust that accumulates at the bottom of the mantle, and some more exotic types of planets where we need more experimental data to fully constrain their atmospheric evolution and potential habitability.

This talk is part of the Exoplanet Seminars series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Cambridge Astronomy Talks
• Combined External Astrophysics Talks DAMTP
• Cosmology, Astrophysics and General Relativity
• Exoplanet Seminars
• Institute of Astronomy Talk Lists
• LCLU Departmental Talks
• Ryle seminar room + ONLINE - Details to be sent by email

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.