Author(s): Edward Young, University of California Los Angeles (First Author, Presenting Author) Hilke Schlichting, University of California Los Angeles James Rogers, University of Cambridge
The physical chemistry of silicate-iron-hydrogen mixtures at extreme temperatures and pressures indicates that the interiors of sub-Neptune planets are not composed of discrete iron-rich cores and rocky mantles like Earth, Venus, and Mars in our Solar System. The interiors of the most common type of rocky exoplanet are therefore very different from the structure we are accustom to in the Solar System. Surfaces of these exoplanets correspond to a time-variable phase transition and not a fixed rock or moltern rock surface, with profound implications for the structures of these planets.
