Interior and Surface Physics of Hot, Evaporating Rocky Exoplanets

热、蒸发的岩石系外行星的内部和表面物理学

• 批准号: 2439579
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2439579
• 关键词: Interior; Surface; Physics; Hot; Evaporating

Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered so far, and more are being identified at breakneck speed. A majority of these appear to be small (Earth to super-Earth sized), presumably rocky planets. However, we have very little information about the actual compositions of the latter planets; a property which is of fundamental interest in itself, and also has critical implications for the formation and evolution of these planets. Currently, the most promising way to investigate their compositions is to examine small planets orbiting very close to their parent stars: these planets are so hot that their surfaces are expected to be evaporating and escaping into space, and upcoming missions such as JWST can detect and analyse the escaping material. However, the connection between the composition of the escaping material and that of the planet itself is not trivial: it depends in a complicated fashion on the interior and surface physics and chemistry of the planets. The goal of this project is to investigate in detail this physics for a broad range of planetary masses and compositions, in order to make quantitative predictions about the properties of the surface material that evaporates and escapes. Comparison of these predictions with upcoming observations of such hot planets will then lend vital insights into the true planetary compositions. The work will draw on hydrodynamics, radiation physics, geophysics and geochemistry, married to theoretical calculations and numerical simulations.

到目前为止，已经发现了数千颗系外行星，并且正在以极快的速度识别更多的系外行星。其中大多数似乎都很小（地球到超级地球大小），可能是岩石行星。然而，我们对后者行星的实际成分知之甚少;这一性质本身就具有根本意义，对这些行星的形成和演化也具有重要意义。目前，研究它们的成分最有希望的方法是检查轨道非常接近其母星的小行星：这些行星非常热，以至于它们的表面预计会蒸发并逃逸到太空中，即将到来的任务，如JWST可以检测和分析逃逸的物质。然而，逃逸物质的成分与行星本身的成分之间的联系并不简单：它以复杂的方式取决于行星内部和表面的物理和化学。该项目的目标是详细研究广泛的行星质量和成分的物理学，以便对蒸发和逃逸的表面材料的性质进行定量预测。将这些预测与即将到来的对此类热行星的观测进行比较，将为了解真正的行星组成提供重要的见解。这项工作将利用流体力学、辐射物理学、地球物理学和地球化学，结合理论计算和数值模拟。