Posted: 09 Feb 2016 06:03 AM PST
We’ve gone from discovering the presence of exoplanets to studying their atmospheres by analyzing the spectra produced when a planet transits in front of its star. We’re even in the early stages of deducing weather patterns on some distant worlds. Now we’re looking at probing the inside of planets to learn whether their internal structure is something like that of the Earth.
The work is led by Li Zeng (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), whose team developed a computer model based on the Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM), the standard model for the Earth’s interior. Developed by Adam Dziewonski and Don L. Anderson for the International Association of Geodesy, PREM attempts to model average Earth properties as a function of radius. Zeng adjusted the model for differing masses and compositions and applied the revised version to six known rocky exoplanets with well understood characteristics.
The work shows that rocky worlds should have a nickel/iron core that houses about thirty percent of the planet’s mass, with the remainder being mantle and crust. “We wanted to see how Earth-like these rocky planets are,” says Zeng. “It turns out they are very Earth-like.”
From the paper:
Image: This artist’s illustration compares the interior structures of Earth (left) with the exoplanet Kepler-93b (right), which is one and a half times the size of Earth and 4 times as massive. New research finds that rocky worlds share similar structures, with a core containing about a third of the planet’s mass, surrounded by a mantle and topped by a thin crust. M. Weiss/CfA.
The paper points out that these conclusions fit with studies of disintegrated planet debris in polluted white dwarf spectra. Here the remnant of a star like the Sun has evidently swallowed up planetary materials, usefully producing spectra that can be analyzed to see what elements emerge. Such studies indicate debris that resembles the composition of the Earth, where over 85 percent of the mass is composed of oxygen (O), magnesium (Mg), silicon (Si), and iron (Fe). Moreover, we find similar ratios of iron to silicon and magnesium to silicon. These ratios indicate formation processes similar to those we find in our own Solar System:
The assumption of chemical compositions similar to the Earth’s may come into question in parts of the galaxy that are less rich in metals, in which case different planetary interior structures could evolve, a subject Zeng and team plan to investigate in future research.
The paper is Zeng et al., “Mass-Radius Relation for Rocky Planets based on PREM,” accepted at The Astrophysical Journal (preprint).
|
Monday, February 15, 2016
Centauri Dreams: Inside Rocky Exoplanets
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment