Model Atmospheres for Volatile-Rich Hot Rocky Planets
Abstract
We are building a versatile set of self-consistent atmospheric models to calculate the structure, composition, and spectra of hot rocky exoplanets in short period orbits. To date, more than 100 such hot rocky exoplanets have been confirmed, and they will form the majority of small planets in close-in orbits to be discovered by the TESS and Kepler K2 missions. These hot worlds offer the best opportunity to characterize rocky exoplanets with current and future instruments. We are using a fully non-grey radiative-convective atmospheric structure code with cloud formation combined with a self-consistent treatment of gas chemistry above the magma ocean. Being in equilibrium with the surface, the vaporized rock material can be a good tracer of the bulk composition of the planet. We are investigating both volatile-poor and volatile-rich compositions, with the volatile-poor ranging from completely depleted, to water-free (Venus-like), to containing only sulfur and halogens (Io-like). To properly account for these exotic compositions and thermodynamic regimes, we are working on a self-consistent treatment of vertical mixing, condensation, and non-ideal gas behavior. We present our preliminary results for the atmospheric structure of volatile-rich hot rocky as a function of planet-star distance. Our models will inform follow-up observations with JWST and ground-based instruments, aid the interpretation of transit and eclipse spectra, and provide a better understanding of volatile behavior in these atmospheres.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.P44A..10L
- Keywords:
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- 0328 Exosphere;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 0343 Planetary atmospheres;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 6207 Comparative planetology;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTSDE: 6296 Extra-solar planets;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS