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Register a new userSolar System Ice Giants: Exoplanets in our Backyard
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Future remote sensing of exoplanets will be enhanced by a thorough investigation of our solar system Ice Giants (Neptune-size planets). What can the configuration of the magnetic field tell us (remotely) about the interior, and what implications does that field have for the structure of the magnetosphere; energy input into the atmosphere, and surface geophysics (for example surface weathering of satellites that might harbour sub-surface oceans). How can monitoring of auroral emission help inform future remote observations of emission from exoplanets? Our Solar System provides the only laboratory in which we can perform in-situ experiments to understand exoplanet formation, dynamos, systems and magnetospheres.
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In the course of the selection of the scientific themes for the second and third L-class missions of the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program of the European Space Agency, the exploration of the ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune was defined a timely milestone, fully appropriate for an L class mission. Among the proposed scientific themes, we presented the scientific case of exploring both planets and their satellites in the framework of a single L-class mission and proposed a mission scenario that could allow to achieve this result. In this work we present an updated and more complete discussion of the scientific rationale and of the mission concept for a comparative exploration of the ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune and of their satellite systems with twin spacecraft. The first goal of comparatively studying these two similar yet extremely different systems is to shed new light on the ancient past of the Solar System and on the processes that shaped its formation and evolution. This, in turn, would reveal whether the Solar System and the very diverse extrasolar systems discovered so far all share a common origin or if different environments and mechanisms were responsible for their formation. A space mission to the ice giants would also open up the possibility to use Uranus and Neptune as templates in the study of one of the most abundant type of extrasolar planets in the galaxy. Finally, such a mission would allow a detailed study of the interplanetary and gravitational environments at a range of distances from the Sun poorly covered by direct exploration, improving the constraints on the fundamental theories of gravitation and on the behaviour of the solar wind and the interplanetary magnetic field.
We reconstruct the 3D structure of magnetic fields, which were seeded by density perturbations during the radiation dominated epoch of the Universe and later on were evolved by structure formation. To achieve this goal, we rely on three dimensional initial density fields inferred from the 2M++ galaxy compilation via the Bayesian $texttt{BORG}$ algorithm. Using those, we estimate the magnetogenesis by the so called Harrison mechanism. This effect produced magnetic fields exploiting the different photon drag on electrons and ions in vortical motions, which are exited due to second order perturbation effects in the Early Universe. Subsequently we study the evolution of these seed fields through the non-linear cosmic structure formation by virtue of a MHD simulation to obtain a 3D estimate for the structure of this primordial magnetic field component today. At recombination we obtain a reliable lower limit on the large scale magnetic field strength around $10^{-23} mathrm{G}$, with a power spectrum peaking at about $ 2, mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}h$ in comoving scales. At present we expect this evolved primordial field to have strengthts above $approx 10^{-27}, mathrm{G}$ and $approx 10^{-29}, mathrm{G}$ in clusters of galaxies and voids, respectively. We also calculate the corresponding Faraday rotation measure map and show the magnetic field morphology and strength for specific objects of the Local Universe.
This is a white paper submitted to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey. The Exoplanets in our Backyard meeting was born out of a recognition of the value and potential of interdisciplinary, cross-divisional exoplanet and solar system research, and to encourage and grow the community of researchers working at this intersection. This first-ever inter-assessment group (AG) meeting (organized by members of the Venus Exploration, Outer Planets, and Exoplanet AGs, or VEXAG, OPAG, and ExoPAG, respectively), successfully brought together solar system and exoplanetary scientists from different backgrounds and NASA divisions, fostered communication between researchers whose paths had never crossed at a meeting before, and spurred new collaborations. The meeting was held at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, TX on February 5-8, 2020 immediately following the OPAG meeting hosted at the same location. The meeting was attended by approximately 110 scientists on site, and 20-30 online participants. The success of this meeting should be capitalized upon and its momentum carried forward to promote fruitful scientific and programmatic discussion, partnerships, and research going forward. This white paper summarizes the meeting, and discusses the findings and action items that resulted.
Motivated by recent visits from interstellar comets, along with continuing discoveries of minor bodies in orbit of the Sun, this paper studies the capture of objects on initially hyperbolic orbits by our solar system. Using an ensemble of $sim500$ million numerical experiments, this work generalizes previous treatments by calculating the capture cross section as a function of asymptotic speed. The resulting velocity-dependent cross section can then be convolved with any distribution of relative speeds to determine the capture rate for incoming bodies. This convolution is carried out for the usual Maxwellian distribution, as well as the velocity distribution expected for rocky debris ejected from planetary systems. We also construct an analytic description of the capture process that provides an explanation for the functional form of the capture cross section in both the high velocity and low velocity limits.
The physical state and properties of silicates at conditions encountered in the cores of gas giants, ice giants and of Earth like exoplanets now discovered with masses up to several times the mass of the Earth remains mostly unknown. Here, we report on theoretical predictions of the properties of silica, SiO$_2$, up to 4 TPa and about 20,000K using first principle molecular dynamics simulations based on density functional theory. For conditions found in the Super-Earths and in ice giants, we show that silica remains a poor electrical conductor up to 10 Mbar due to an increase in the Si-O coordination with pressure. For Jupiter and Saturn cores, we find that MgSiO$_3$ silicate has not only dissociated into MgO and SiO$_2$, as shown in previous studies, but that these two phases have likely differentiated to lead to a core made of liquid SiO$_2$ and solid (Mg,Fe)O.
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