Constraining The Composition Of Super-Earths: The Case Of GJ1214b

Details Constraining The Composition Of Super-Earths: The Case Of GJ1214b Constraining The Composition Of Super-Earths: The Case Of GJ1214b

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.6204n&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #62.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1090

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The genuine super-Earth planet GJ1214b (6.55 Earth masses, 2.68 Earth radii, 555 K equilibrium temperature) orbits a 3-10 Gyrs old M-star. By coupling model atmospheres to interior structure models, we compute the first thermal evolution models of this planet assuming homogeneous envelopes composed of H/He, H2O, or H/He/H2O atop a rock core.
We find that consistency with its age excludes pure water models, narrows the overall H/He mass fraction of dry envelope models to 1-2%, and that of water-rich envelope models to below 6%.
Unlike CoRot-7b, even in case of intense stellar XUV irradiation the mass loss over time experienced by GJ1214b accumulates to less than 0.12 Earth masses, leaving it a genuine super-Earth. Unlike Neptune or Ganymede, water at GJ1214b deep interior conditions will persist in a fluid or plasma state and therefore preferrentially be mixed into a H/He envelope ready for detection.

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