Liquid Water on Frozen Extrasolar Planets?

Research areas:

• Intérieurs planétaires (2011 - 2016)

Year:

2008

Authors:

• David Ehrenreich
• Alain Lecavelier des Etangs
• Jean-Philippe Beaulieu
• Olivier Grasset

Editor:

Fischer, D; Rasio, FA; Thorsett, SE; Wolszczan, A

Volume:

398

Series:

ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE PACIFIC CONFERENCE SERIES

BibTex:

@book{WOS:000260672400079, author = "David Ehrenreich and des Etangs, Alain Lecavelier and Jean-Philippe Beaulieu and Olivier Grasset", abstract = "The detection of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb (Beaulieu et al. 2006) around an M star in the Galactic Bulge unveils the existence of cold (similar to 40 K) Earth-mass planets (Ehrenreich and Cassan 2007). Such planets could nevertheless host liquid water beneath a frozen surface, because of a strong radiogenic heating of the ice shell (Ehrenreich et al. 2006). Heating and cooling of the ice shell depend on the ice-to-rock ratio (I/R.) and the age of the planet planet. OGLE 390Lb now seems too old (similar to 10 Gyr) to host a subsurface ocean, for any tested I/R value. However, the heat production rate was larger in the past so that liquid water did flow for several billions of years underneath the ice shell.", booktitle = "Conference on Extreme Solar Systems", editor = "Fischer, D; Rasio, FA; Thorsett, SE; Wolszczan, A", extra = "PICL", journal = "EXTREME SOLAR SYSTEMS", pages = "537-540", series = "ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE PACIFIC CONFERENCE SERIES", title = "{L}iquid {W}ater on {F}rozen {E}xtrasolar {P}lanets?", volume = "398", year = "2008", }

Abstract:

The detection of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb (Beaulieu et al. 2006) around an M star in the Galactic Bulge unveils the existence of cold (similar to 40 K) Earth-mass planets (Ehrenreich and Cassan 2007). Such planets could nevertheless host liquid water beneath a frozen surface, because of a strong radiogenic heating of the ice shell (Ehrenreich et al. 2006). Heating and cooling of the ice shell depend on the ice-to-rock ratio (I/R.) and the age of the planet planet. OGLE 390Lb now seems too old (similar to 10 Gyr) to host a subsurface ocean, for any tested I/R value. However, the heat production rate was larger in the past so that liquid water did flow for several billions of years underneath the ice shell.