
SignificanceEarth and Venus have significant atmospheres, but Mercury does not. Thousands of exoplanets are known, but we know almost nothing about rocky exoplanet atmospheres. Many rocky exoplanets were formed by a sub-Neptune-to-super-Earth conversion process during which planets lose most of their H2-rich (primary) atmospheres and are reduced in volume by a factor of >2. Does such a gas-rich adolescence increase or decrease the likelihood that super-Earths will subsequently exhibit a H2-poor (secondary) atmosphere? We show that secondary atmospheres exsolved from the magma ocean are unlikely to be retained by super-Earths, but it is possible for volcanic outgassing to revive super-Earth atmospheres. For M-dwarf planetary systems, super-Earths that have atmospheres close to the star likely were formed with abundant volatiles.
Physics - Geophysics, Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP), FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics, Geophysics (physics.geo-ph)
Physics - Geophysics, Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP), FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics, Geophysics (physics.geo-ph)
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| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Top 10% | |
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