Lania, Jorick (2025) Forging Planets: Exploring the Magma Ocean Geochemistry of super-Earths and sub-Neptunes. Master's Thesis / Essay, Astronomy.
|
Text
mAST2025LaniaJ.pdf.pdf Download (5MB) | Preview |
|
![[img]](https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/style/images/fileicons/text.png) |
Text
toestemming lania.pdf Restricted to Registered users only Download (182kB) |
Abstract
Super-Earths and sub-Neptunes represent the majority of exoplanets discovered thus far, and it is likely that they form large-scale magma oceans after accretion. These magma oceans can be sustained for up to Gyr timescales, during which convection between their atmospheres and mantles may cause these reservoirs to attain chemical equilibrium. Their ultimate compositions must therefore be understood through the joint chemical equilibrium between their mantles, atmospheres, and possibly metal cores. This thesis utilizes a chemical equilibrium model spanning 26 species across the planet's atmosphere, molten mantle and metal core. We investigate how the compositions of these phases change in response to reaching chemical equilibrium under the influence of various parameters, including the surface temperature, core-mantle equilibration temperature, and mantle composition. Our results show SiO, SiH4 and H2O becoming abundant in the atmosphere as surface temperature increases, provided the temperature at the core-mantle boundary is below 3500 K. When the core-mantle temperature increases, the atmosphere is recycled into the planetary interior as large amounts of H, O and Si partition into the metal. The remaining tenuous atmosphere is dominated by CO and CO2, and their abundances may serve as a tracer for the interior temperature. The detectability of SiO with infrared spectroscopy presents an opportunity for distinguishing magma ocean atmospheres.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master's Thesis / Essay) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Lichtenberg, T. and Spaargaren, R.J. and Kamp, I.E.E. |
| Degree programme: | Astronomy |
| Thesis type: | Master's Thesis / Essay |
| Language: | English |
| Date Deposited: | 02 Sep 2025 12:22 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Sep 2025 12:22 |
| URI: | https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/36759 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |