Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.1111b&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #11.11; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.403
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The discovery of exoplanets potentially provides a new range of planetary bulk compositions and conditions. Rocky planets have a high likelihood of having been largely or entirely molten early in their evolution as a result of kinetic energy of accretion, short-lived radioisotopes, and metallic iron core formation. Solidification of rocky exoplanets will follow the same chemical and physical processes as planets in our solar system would, and so models of the solidification of these silicate magma oceans provide some constraints on initial crustal compositions of these various bodies. Estimates of crustal compositions can be matched with the spectra that are eventually expected to be obtained from these bodies.
Different initial planetary compositions, magma ocean depths, and planetary masses produce different earliest igneous crusts. By using the range of primitive meteorite compositions from our solar system for the planetary initial bulk compositions, a template for a wide range of bodies is created. Sensitivity analyses of changes to bulk compositions are possible by altering the fraction of individual oxide constituents, such as silica or magnesia. Combining these sensitivity analyses with mineralogies suitable for the bulk compositions provides a method of determining a range of earliest crustal compositions.
The wide range of initial bulk compositions produce a relatively small selection of predicted earliest crustal compositions, because of predictable actions such as flotation of buoyant minerals in the solidifying magma, as appeared to have occurred on the Moon. The terrestrial bodies that provide a reference and will be discussed include the Earth, Mercury, Mars, the Moon, and asteroid 4 Vesta. Models of the crust-producing processes calibrated on these bodies in our solar system can then be applied to exoplanets in order to estimate their earliest crustal compositions.
Brown Stephanie
Elkins-Tanton Linda T.
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