The deep oxygen abundance in Solar System Giant Planets, with a new derivation for Saturn

Abstract

Deep elemental composition is a challenging measurement to achieve in the giant planets of the solar system. Yet, knowledge of the deep composition offers important insights in the internal structure of these planets, their evolutionary history and their formation scenarios. A key element whose deep abundance is difficult to obtain is oxygen, because of its propensity for being in condensed phases such as rocks and ices. In the atmospheres of the giant planets, oxygen is largely stored in water molecules that condense below the observable levels. At atmospheric levels that can be investigated with remote sensing, water abundance can modify the observed meteorology, and meteorological phenomena can distribute water through the atmosphere in complex ways that are not well understood and that encompass deeper portions of the atmosphere. The deep oxygen abundance provides constraints on the connection between atmosphere and interior and on the processes by which other elements were trapped, making its determination an important element to understand giant planets. In this paper, we review the current constraints on the deep oxygen abundance of the giant planets, as derived from observations and thermochemical models.

18 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (34)

• A chemical model for the atmosphere of hot Jupiters
• The water abundance in Jupiter's equatorial zone
• Condensation-inhibited convection in hydrogen-rich atmospheres: Stability against double-diffusive processes and thermal profiles for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
• Methane on Uranus: The case for a compact CH4 cloud layer at low latitudes and a severe CH4 depletion at high-latitudes based on re-analysis of Voyager occultation measurements and STIS spectroscopy
• Dust Ablation on the Giant Planets: Consequences for Stratospheric Photochemistry
• How drifting and evaporating pebbles shape giant planets II: Volatiles and refractories in atmospheres
• Chemical Diversity in Protoplanetary Disks and Its Impact on the Formation History of Giant Planets
• Deep Atmosphere Composition, Structure, Origin, and Exploration, with Particular Focus on Critical in situ Science at the Icy Giants
• Methane depletion in both polar regions of Uranus inferred from HST/STIS and Keck/NIRC2 observations
• Probable detection of hydrogen sulphide (H${}_2$S) in Neptune's atmosphere
• `Tail-end' Bondi-Hoyle accretion in young star clusters: Implications for disks, planets, and stars
• Constraining the Origins of Neptune's Carbon Monoxide Abundance with CARMA Millimeter-wave Observations
• Measuring Jupiter's water abundance by Juno: the link between interior and formation models
• Scientific rationale of Saturn's in situ exploration
• A new chemical scheme for giant planet thermochemistry. Update of the methanol chemistry and new reduced chemical scheme
• Saturn's Great Storm of 2010-2011: Evidence for ammonia and water ices from analysis of VIMS spectra
• The Origin of Nitrogen on Jupiter and Saturn from the ${}^{15}$N/${}^{14}$N Ratio
• Thermochemistry and vertical mixing in the tropospheres of Uranus and Neptune: How convection inhibition can affect the derivation of deep oxygen abundances
• External Photoevaporation of the Solar Nebula: Jupiter's Noble Gas Enrichments
• Moist Convection and the 2010-2011 Revival of Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt
• The Interiors of Uranus and Neptune: Current Understanding and Open Questions
• Jupiter's formation in the vicinity of the amorphous ice snowline
• Latitudinal variation in the abundance of methane (CH4) above the clouds in Neptune's atmosphere from VLT/MUSE Narrow Field Mode Observations
• New Insights on Jupiter's Deep Water Abundance from Disequilibrium Species
• A subsolar oxygen abundance or a radiative region deep in Jupiter revealed by thermochemical modelling
• Evolution of the reservoirs of volatiles in the protosolar nebula
• The deep composition of Uranus and Neptune from in situ exploration and thermochemical modeling
• Latitudinal variation of methane mole fraction above clouds in Neptune's atmosphere from VLT/MUSE-NFM: Limb-darkening reanalysis
• Highly depleted alkali metals in Jupiter's deep atmosphere
• Convective storms and atmospheric vertical structure in Uranus and Neptune
• The nature and composition of Jupiter's building blocks derived from the water abundance measurements by the Juno spacecraft
• Evidence of a Polar Cyclone on Uranus from VLA Observations
• The deep oxygen abundance in Solar System Giant Planets, with a new derivation for Saturn
• Lightning generation in moist convective clouds and constraints on the water abundance in Jupiter

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Formation and evolution of a protoplanetary disk: combining observations, simulations and cosmochemical constraints
• The deep oxygen abundance in Solar System Giant Planets, with a new derivation for Saturn
• Deciphering Sub-Neptune Atmospheres: New Insights from Geochemical Models of TOI-270 d
• C/O ratios in self-gravitating protoplanetary discs with dust evolution
• Detection of CO${}_2$, CO, and H${}_2$O in the atmosphere of the warm sub-Saturn HAT-P-12b