From Stars to Diverse Mantles, Melts, Crusts, and Atmospheres of Rocky Exoplanets

Abstract

The advent of radial velocity (RV) and transit photometry method has resulted in the detection of more than 5000 exoplanets since 1995. Of these detected planets, a significant fraction, ∼20%,1 may be dominantly rocky. Given the biases inherent to exoplanet detection, this implies an even larger fraction of the overall planet population as likely possessing a significant rock fraction (e.g., Fulton et al. 2017). However, owing to the difficulty in detecting Earth-sized planets, the vast majority of these rocky planets are much larger than Earth (so-called ‘super-Earths’); with radii ≲ 1.5 times that of Earth (1.5 RE...