The Interiors of Giant Planets: Models and Outstanding Questions

Abstract

We know that giant planets played a crucial role in the making of our Solar System. The discovery of giant planets orbiting other stars is a formidable opportunity to learn more about these objects, what is their composition, how various processes influence their structure and evolution, and most importantly how they form. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune can be studied in detail, mostly from close spacecraft flybys. We can infer that they are all enriched in heavy elements compared to the Sun, with the relative global enrichments increasing with distance to the Sun. We can also infer that they possess dense cores of varied masses. The intercomparison of presently caracterised extrasolar giant planets show that they are also mainly made of hydrogen and helium, but that they either have significantly different amounts of heavy elements, or have had different orbital evolutions, or both. Hence, many questions remain and are to be answered for significant progresses on the origins of planets.

43 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables. To appear in Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, vol 33, (2005)

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