Why Geosciences and Exoplanetary Sciences Need Each Other

TL;DR

This paper argues that integrating geosciences and exoplanetary sciences can mutually enhance understanding of planetary formation, evolution, and unique phenomena, benefiting both fields through shared observations and insights.

Contribution

It highlights the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration, emphasizing how Earth observations can inform exoplanet studies and vice versa, to address fundamental planetary questions.

Findings

Exoplanet studies can shed light on Earth's unique features.

Earth's diverse phenomena may be better understood through exoplanet comparisons.

Shared insights can resolve longstanding questions in geosciences and exoplanet research.

Abstract

The study of planets outside our solar system may lead to major advances in our understanding of the Earth, and provide insight into the universal set of rules by which planets form and evolve. To achieve these goals requires applying geoscience's wealth of Earth observations to fill in the blanks left by the necessarily minimalist exoplanetary observations. In turn, Earth's many one-offs, e.g., plate tectonics, surface liquid water, a large moon, and life - which have long presented chicken and egg type conundrums for geoscientists - may find resolution in the study of exoplanets possessing only a subset of these phenomena.