The focus for RiMG volume 90 is on rocky exoplanets because the search for truly Earth-like planets is of special interest. The goal is to motivate communication between the disciplines so as to make the best use possible of existing data and data yet to be collected by the James Webb and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescopes, since the astronomy community is gathering data on stars and exoplanets at an accelerating rate. Such data now include exoplanet size and mass (i.e., density) as well as their atmospheric compositions, which are collectively telltale of mineralogy and evolution. Much of what is published may still fall in the realm of educated speculation, but our conjectures are metamorphosing into testable hypotheses. There is now a remarkably large amount of astronomical data (with even more on the way) that geochemists and petrologists can make much use of. But just as astronomers may benefit from geologic insights, geologists need our colleagues in astronomy to help interpret their data and their underlying implications to better understand its astronomical context. Our hopes for this volume will be fulfilled if readers initiate their own analyses of what at present may seem like novel or unusual data, and if new collaborations between academic departments and subfields are forged.

A detailed overview of Saturn's formation, evolution and structure written by eminent planetary scientists involved in the Cassini Orbiter mission.

For the first time in human history, we know for certain the existence of planets around other stars. Now the fastest-growing field in space science, the time is right for this fundamental source book on the topic which will lay the foundation for its continued growth. Exoplanets serves as both an introduction for the non-specialist and a foundation for the techniques and equations used in exoplanet observation by those dedicated to the field.

“The Early Evolution of the Atmospheres of Terrestrial Planets” presents the main processes participating in the atmospheric evolution of terrestrial planets. A group of experts in the different fields provide an update of our current knowledge on this topic. Several papers in this book discuss the key role of nitrogen in the atmospheric evolution of terrestrial planets. The earliest setting and evolution of planetary atmospheres of terrestrial planets is directly associated with accretion, chemical differentiation, outgassing, stochastic impacts, and extremely high energy fluxes from their host stars. This book provides an overview of the present knowledge of the initial atmospheric composition of the terrestrial planets. Additionally it includes some papers about the current exoplanet discoveries and provides additional clues to our understanding of Earth’s transition from a hot accretionary phase into a habitable world. All papers included were reviewed by experts in their respective fields. We are living in an epoch of important exoplanet discoveries, but current properties of these exoplanets do not match our scientific predictions using standard terrestrial planet models. This book deals with the main physio-chemical signatures and processes that could be useful to better understand the formation of rocky planets.

This comprehensive reference volume surveys the development of crusts on solid planets and satellites in the solar system.

Approximately one-third of about four thousand known exoplanets are possibly rocky in nature. The chemical and physical diversity of rocky exoplanets is well beyond that of the rocky planets of our solar system; Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. In this thesis, we investigate the mineralogy, structure, evolution, and habitability of rocky exoplanets by implementing laboratory and computational tools from geosciences. We derive a new ab initio equation of state of iron using density functional theory valid at and beyond the core pressures of super-Earths. We show that extrapolations of equations of state to pressures beyond their validity range result in significant errors in estimating the interior properties of planets. We perform high-pressure high-temperature experiments on chemical mixtures representative of the bulk composition of carbon-rich rocky exoplanets and find that graphite (and diamond, depending on pressure) is the dominant carbon-bearing mineral. Such exoplanets likely contain an iron-rich core, a silicate mantle, and a graphite outer shell. We also show that silicon carbide, another carbon-bearing mineral thought to be an important constituent of these exoplanets, is stable only if all oxidized iron in the planetary interior is reduced to its metallic state. Using a parameterized mantle convection model, we compute the thermal evolution of rocky exoplanets with a graphite outer shell and find that the graphite shell exhibits a thermal shielding effect resulting in a slower cooling of the planet. A priori these graphite-shell exoplanets are likely uninhabitable because of a lack of life-building elements at their surface other than carbon, however thin graphite shells might still allow habitability.

This volume of the EMU Notes in Mineralogy is one of the outcomes of a school in planetary mineralogy that was held in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2014. The school was inspired by the recent advances in our understanding of the nature and evolution of our Solar System that have come from the missions to study and sample asteroids and comets, and the very successful Mars orbiters and landers. At the same time our horizons have expanded greatly with the discovery of extrasolar protoplanetary disks, planets and planetary systems by space telescopes. The continued success of such telescopic and robotic exploration requires a supply of highly skilled people and so one of the goals of the Glasgow school was to help build a community of early-career planetary scientists and space engineers.