Planetary internal structures

Abstract

This chapter reviews the most recent advancements on the topic of terrestrial and giant planet interiors, including Solar System and extrasolar objects. Starting from an observed mass-radius diagram for known planets in the Universe, we will discuss the various types of planets appearing in this diagram and describe internal structures for each type. The review will summarize the status of theoretical and experimental works performed in the field of equation of states (EOS) for materials relevant to planetary interiors and will address the main theoretical and experimental uncertainties and challenges. It will discuss the impact of new EOS on interior structures and bulk composition determination. We will discuss important dynamical processes which strongly impact the interior and evolutionary properties of planets (e.g plate tectonics, semiconvection) and describe non standard models recently suggested for our giant planets. We will address the case of short-period, strongly irradiated exoplanets and critically analyse some of the physical mechanisms which have been suggested to explain their anomalously large radius.

24 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication as a chapter in Protostars and Planets VI, University of Arizona Press (2014), eds. H. Beuther, R. Klessen, C. Dullemond, Th. Henning."

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