(February 8, 2016) Every school kid learns the basic
structure of the Earth: a thin outer crust, a thick mantle, and a Mars-sized
core. But is this structure universal? Will rocky exoplanets orbiting other
stars have the same three layers? New research suggests that the answer is yes
- they will have interiors very similar to Earth.
"We wanted to see how Earth-like these rocky planets
are. It turns out they are very Earth-like," says lead author Li Zeng of
the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).
To reach this conclusion Zeng and his co-authors applied a
computer model known as the Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM), which is
the standard model for Earth's interior. They adjusted it to accommodate
different masses and compositions, and applied it to six known rocky exoplanets
with well-measured masses and physical sizes.
They found that the other planets, despite their differences
from Earth, all should have a nickel/iron core containing about 30 percent of
the planet's mass. In comparison, about a third of the Earth's mass is in its
core. The remainder of each planet would be mantle and crust, just as with
Earth.
"We've only understood the Earth's structure for the
past hundred years. Now we can calculate the structures of planets orbiting
other stars, even though we can't visit them," adds Zeng.
The new code also can be applied to smaller, icier worlds
like the moons and dwarf planets in the outer solar system. For example, by
plugging in the mass and size of Pluto, the team finds that Pluto is about
one-third ice (mostly water ice but also ammonia and methane ices).
The model assumes that distant exoplanets have chemical
compositions similar to Earth. This is reasonable based on the relevant
abundances of key chemical elements like iron, magnesium, silicon, and oxygen
in nearby systems. However, planets forming in more or less metal-rich regions
of the galaxy could show different interior structures. The team expects to
explore these questions in future research.
The paper detailing this work, authored by Li Zeng, Dimitar
Sasselov, and Stein Jacobsen (Harvard University), has been accepted for
publication in The Astrophysical Journal and is available online.