Can super-Earth interior dynamics set the table for habitability?

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Exposing the Big Game's avatarThe Extinction Chronicles

FEBRUARY 9, 2021

byCarnegie Institution for Science

Can super-Earth interior dynamics set the table for habitability?
An illustration showing how a combination of static high-pressure synthesis techniques and dynamic methods enabled the researchers to probe the magnesium silicate bridgmanite, believed to be predominate in the mantles of rocky planets, under extreme conditions mimicking the interior of a super-Earth. Credit: Yingwei Fei. Sandia Z Machine photograph by Randy Montoya, Sandia National Laboratories.

New research led by Carnegie’s Yingwei Fei provides a framework for understanding the interiors of super-Earths—rocky exoplanets between 1.5 and 2 times the size of our home planet—which is a prerequisite to assess their potential for habitability. Planets of this size are among the most abundant in exoplanetary systems. The paper is published inNature Communications.https://349c2ad06770b85713828b8b09374a4f.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html

“Although observations of an exoplanet’s atmospheric composition will be the first way to search for signatures of life beyond Earth, many aspects of a planet’s surface habitability are influenced by…

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