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http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/28855
Title: | Growth Model Interpretation of Planet Size Distribution | Authors: | Li Zeng Stein B. Jacobsen Dimitar D. Sasselov Michail I. Petaev Andrew Vanderburg Mercedes Lopez-Morales Juan Perez-Mercader Thomas R. Mattsson Gongjie Li Matthew Z. Heising BONOMO, ALDO STEFANO Damasso, Mario Travis A. Berger Hao Cao Amit Levi Robin D. Wordsworth |
Issue Date: | 2019 | Journal: | PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | Number: | 116 | Issue: | 20 | First Page: | 9723 | Abstract: | The radii and orbital periods of 4000+ confirmed/candidate exoplanets have been precisely measured by the Kepler mission. The radii show a bimodal distribution, with two peaks corresponding to smaller planets (likely rocky) and larger intermediate-size planets, respectively. While only the masses of the planets orbiting the brightest stars can be determined by ground-based spectroscopic observations, these observations allow calculation of their average densities placing constraints on the bulk compositions and internal structures. Yet an important question about the composition of planets ranging from 2 to 4 Earth radii still remains. They may either have a rocky core enveloped in a H2-He gaseous envelope (gas dwarfs) or contain a significant amount of multi-component, H2O-dominated ices/fluids (water worlds). Planets in the mass range of 10-15 Earth masses, if half-ice and half-rock by mass, have radii of 2.5 Earth radii, which exactly match the second peak of the exoplanet radius bimodal distribution. Any planet in the 2-4 Earth radii range requires a gas envelope of at most a few mass percentage points, regardless of the core composition. To resolve the ambiguity of internal compositions, we use a growth model and conduct Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate that many intermediate-size planets are water worlds. | URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/28855 | URL: | http://arxiv.org/abs/1906.04253v1 https://www.pnas.org/content/116/20/9723 |
ISSN: | 0027-8424 | DOI: | 10.1073/pnas.1812905116 | Fulltext: | open |
Appears in Collections: | 1.01 Articoli in rivista |
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File | Description | Size | Format | |
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Zengetal_2019.pdf | postprint | 1.85 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
9723.full.pdf | [Administrators only] | 1.92 MB | Adobe PDF |
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