Giant planets – far out, close-in, and deep inside

Dr. Nadine Nettelmann
(Institut fur Physik, Universitat Rostock)
Dienstag/Tuesday, 2011-5-17 16:00, EW203
Eugene-Paul-Wigner Gebäude (Physik-Neubau), Hardenbergstr. 36, 10623 Berlin

Abstract

In 1995, three milestones advanced our imagination of giant planets: the Galileo entry probe into Jupiter's atmosphere, the first discovery of an exoplanet around a Sun-like star, and the improve- ment of H/He equation of state (EOS) data. Today, the gravity field of the outer planets is better known, photometric and spectroscopic data of close-in exoplanets are available, and accurate ab- initio EOS for the deep interior are computed. Based on these results, we present new models for giant planets by studying several solar and extrasolar planets in detail.

The hot Neptune Gj436b will serve us to demonstrate the ambiguity of interior solutions when mass and radius are the only constraints. Since the eccentricity of the hot Jupiter HAT-P13b may uniquely relate to its tidal evolution, we show how the additional constraint of the Love number k2 can narrow down the mass of the core. Jupiter's theoretical core mass on the other hand responds extremely sensitive to the hydrogen EOS at high pressures, and likely does not exceed 5 Earth masses. For Saturn, we find that separation of He from metallic H can account for its high luminosity. We conclude by presenting Gj1214b as a big planet with properties of both giant and terrestrial objects. We suggest to approch such planets by combined ideas from geoscience and mineralogy, planet formation, icy moons, and atmosphere studies.