2024-03-20 Abstract
Title: Rapid accretion of rocky planets and the outgassing of their first atmospheres
Speaker: Prof. Anders Johansen (U. Copenhagen)
Date: March 20 at 11:00
Location: R521, General Building II
Abstract:
Terrestrial planets have traditionally been thought to form by collisions between protoplanets taking place mostly after the dissipation of the protoplanetary disc, on time-scales of 30-100 million years. I present here a new model where rocky planets grow instead by accreting small pebbles in the protoplanetary disc within 3-5 million years. I discuss how the immense pebble accretion heat leads to extensive melting of the growing planets and to the emergence of deep magma oceans. Volatiles such as water, carbon and nitrogen are accreted with the pebbles and partitioned between atmosphere, magma ocean and core. The end of the accretion phase leads to rapid crystallisation of the magma ocean and outgassing of the first atmosphere. I will finally discuss how the atmospheric composition of young planets is key to understanding the origin of life.