A new perspective on interiors of ice-rich planets: Ice-rock mixture instead of ice on top of rock

TL;DR

This study explores the internal structure of ice-rich planets, revealing that ice and rock remain mixed at high pressures and that planetary migration and mass loss significantly influence their internal composition and atmospheres.

Contribution

It introduces a new perspective that ice and rock are likely to stay mixed inside ice-rich planets, challenging the traditional layered model, and models the effects of migration and mass loss on their interiors.

Findings

Ice and rock remain mixed in the interior for billions of years.

Migration influences the similarity of planetary interiors.

Mass loss leads to surface separation and volatile atmosphere formation.

Abstract

Ice-rich planets are formed exterior to the water ice-line and thus are expected to contain a substantial amount of ices. The high ice content leads to unique conditions in the interior, under which the structure of a planet is affected by ice interaction with other metals. We apply experimental data of ice-rock interaction at high pressure, and calculate detailed thermal evolution for possible interior configurations of ice-rich planets, in the mass range of super-Earth to Neptunes (5-15 Earth masses). We model the effect of migration inward on the ice-rich interior by including the influences of stellar flux and envelope mass loss. We find that ice and rock are expected to remain mixed, due to miscibility at high pressure, in substantial parts of the planetary interior for billions of years. We also find that the deep interior of planetary twins that have migrated to different distances from the star are usually similar, if no mass loss occurs. Significant mass loss results in separation of the water from the rock on the surface and emergence of a volatile atmosphere of less than 1 percent of the planet's mass. The mass of the atmosphere of water/steam is limited by the ice-rock interaction. We conclude that when ice is abundant in planetary interiors the planet structure may differ significantly from the standard layered structure of a water shell on top of a rocky core. Similar structure is expected in both close-in and further-out planets.