XPost: alt.usenet.kooks, alt.checkmate
A fascinating look at the interiors of super-Earths:
https://people.earth.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/duffy_madhu_kkml_superEarths_2015.pdf
Seems they may have unusual traits: multiple convecting and stagnant
layers in their mantles, heat-conducting layers of diamond or metallic,
highly compressed minerals, and odd magnetic fields that could be
inhibited by a conducting solid layer above the core that blocks the
core's dynamo field or by the core itself being completely solid, or
enhanced by a convecting liquid metallic layer in the mantle.
(My own leaning is toward enhanced. Jupiter has a very strong magnetic
field, and it stands to reason that intermediate mass planets may be intermediate in that regard between Earth and Jupiter.)
Some water-rich planets could even have oven-hot layers of solid ice
in their interiors, kept from melting by pressure. Oven-hot ice.
I wonder if James Webb can soon start gathering infrared spectra from
exoplanet atmospheres. That might give us a whole new set of data to
play around with. Enough to keep us astrophysicists busy for generations, perhaps.
Speaking of which:
https://www.unilad.co.uk/technology/nasas-james-webb-telescope-detects-first-signal-20220206
Won't be much longer now ...
--
"To explain the unknown by the known is a logical procedure; to explain
the known by the unknown is a form of theological lunacy." ~David Brooks
"I get fooled all the time by the constant hosiery parade
in here." ~Checkmate
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