Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p21a1590z&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P21A-1590
Other
[5455] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Origin And Evolution, [5470] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Surface Materials And Properties
Scientific paper
The discovery of extrasolar planets - planets that orbit stars other than our sun - has always been fascinating. Meanwhile more than 400 so--called exoplanets have been detected. However, most of the detected exoplanets so far are relatively large (beyond 10 Earth masses) and can be regarded as gaseous planets, but scientists have always seeked after smaller and rocky planets, which could be compared to Earth or other earth--like bodies. Recently, the COROT mission discovered an object, Corot-7b, with a radius of only 1.68 REarth corresponding to a mass of 4.8 +/- 0.8 MEarth. This first low-mass exoplanet -- a so-called Super-Earth -- can be considered to be solid. Corot-7b orbits its primary at a very close distance and is therefore tidally locked in an 1:1 spin-orbit resonance. This implies a very inhomogeneous energy input from the star into the planet. Since the dayside is constantly exposed to the star, there is a strong temperature gradient towards the nightside. The surface temperature on the illuminated side is estimated with 2700K, while the shadowed side is thought to be at 110K. The high temperatures on the dayside will cause the evaporation of volatiles, which gives rise to the formation of an atmosphere. We introduce a three dimensional thermal convection model by solving the pertaining dimensionless hydrodynamical equations, computing the temperature field and especially investigate the formation of partially molten regions due to the inhomogeneous energy input onto the surface. The temperature of the surface and subsurface regions is enormously important for the composition of the atmosphere fed from volatiles, which escaped from the planet. The atmosphere is the only part of this exoplanet, which can be observed with remote sensing methods. Henceforth, understanding the conditions for the formation of an atmosphere (i.e., surface temperature map) is an important step forward in understanding extrasolar planets. We found that the highest temperatures are of course reached below the sub-solar hotspot up to a depth of 2500km. The figure shows a slice through the planet perpendicular to the terminator region, the star would be on the right hand side. It can clearly be seen that the temperatures are generally higher below the sub-solar spot. This is also illustrated by the temperature isosurface of 4270K (centre of figure). The hot upwellings concentrate below the dayside. Directly below the subsolar spot the material would be molten up to 200km deep, while towards eastern or respectively western longitudes material freezes out in shallower depths (right side of figure). Left: temperature slice, Centre: temperature isosurface (red) of 4270K, Right: partial melt isosurface (green) of 50k above solidus temperature.
Lammer Helmut
Wurz Peter
Ziethe Ruth
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