Can dynamics within the Earth set the table for abode?

Washington, DC– New Caring-led Yingwei Fei research provides a framework for understanding the interior of super-Earths – rocky exoplanets between 1.5 and 2 times the size of our home planet – that are essential to assess their ability to live there. Planets of this size are among the most abundant in exoplanetary systems. The paper is published in Nature Communication.

“While looking at exoplanet atmospheric combinations is the first way to find out-of-Earth life names, what is happening beneath the surface of the planet affects many aspects of planetary inhabiting potential, which is where the Carnegie researcher ‘s long – standing experience in the properties of buildings leads to the emergence of rocky materials under extreme temperature and pressure, “explained Director of Earth and Plan Laboratories Richard Carlson.

On Earth, the internal dynamics and structure of the silicate and tectonic plate will drive a metabolic heart drive, and generate the geodynamics that power our magnetic field and protect us from dangerous ionizing particles and rays. cosmic. Life as we know it would be impossible without this protection. Similarly, interior dynamics and the structure of super-Earths shape the position of the planet’s surface.

With interesting discoveries about the diversity of rocky exoplanets in recent decades, is a much larger land capable of creating hostile conditions for life to rise and thrive?

Knowledge of what is happening beneath the super-Earth surface is crucial for determining whether or not a distant world is capable of sustaining life. But the real conditions in the interior of a planet above Earth challenge the ability of researchers to study the properties of likely mineral substances.

That’s where lab-based simulation comes in handy.

For decades, Carnegie researchers have been at the forefront of recreating a planet’s interior setting by placing small samples of matter under extreme pressure and high temperatures. But sometimes even these methods reach their limits.

“To build models that allow us to understand the dynamics of the interior and the structure of super-Earths, we need to be able to extract data from samples that estimate the conditions that would be found there, which may exceed 14 million times the atmospheric pressure, “Fei explained.” However, we continued to push boundaries when it came to creating these conditions in the laboratory. “

Progress came when the team – including Carnegie and Peter Driscoll’s Asmaa Boujibar, along with Christopher Seagle, Joshua Townsend, Chad McCoy, Luke Shulenburger, and Michael Furnish of Sandia National Laboratories – gained access to the National Laboratories world’s most powerful – pulsed power-driven device (Sandia’s Pulsed Power Facility Z) to directly surprise a high-density sample of bridgmanite – a high-pressure magnesium silicate believed to be predominant the rocky planetary planets – to expose them to the terrifying conditions relevant to the interior of super-Earths.

A series of hypervelocity wind wave experiments on an over-the-earth representative cover material provided density and melting temperature measurements that will be fundamental for defining the observed masses and radii of super-Earths.

The researchers found that, under a representative pressure inside the Earth, bridgmanite has a very high melting point, which would have a significant impact on internal dynamics. Under some conditions of thermal evolution, they say, geodynamics may be thermally driven by large rocky planets in the early evolution, and then lost for billions of years as cooling grows. slower. Eventually stable geodynamics could be reversed by the movement of lighter elements through inner heart crystals.

“The ability to make these measurements is critical to developing reliable models of Super-Earths’ internal structure of up to eight times the mass of our planet,” said Fei. explain. “

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The project is supported in part by a Carnegie Endowment Grant and the U.S. National Science Foundation.

The project is made possible by the Z. Basic Science Program.