Lava World: Exoplanet Surfaces

TL;DR

This study synthesizes and measures infrared spectra of 16 potential lava planet surface materials, creating a spectral database to interpret future exoplanet observations, especially focusing on the Christiansen feature and mantle composition.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive spectral database of potential lava planet surfaces, linking spectral features to mineralogy and mantle composition, aiding future JWST observations.

Findings

Identified a correlation between the Christiansen feature and silica content.

Synthesized a diverse set of 16 surface materials for spectral analysis.

Established a link between spectral features and mantle composition.

Abstract

The recent first measurements of the reflection of the surface of a lava world provides an unprecedented opportunity to investigate different stages of rocky planet evolution. The spectral features of the surfaces of rocky lava world exoplanets give insights into their evolution, mantle composition and inner workings. However, no database exists yet that contains spectral reflectivity and emission of a wide range of potential exoplanet surface materials. Here we first synthesized 16 potential exoplanet surfaces, spanning a wide range of chemical compositions based on potential mantle material guided by the metallicity of different host stars. Then we measured their infrared reflection spectrum (2.5 - 28 {\mu}m, 350 - 4000 cm^{-1}), from which we can obtain their emission spectra and establish the link between the composition and a strong spectral feature at 8 {\mu}m, the Christiansen feature (CF). Our analysis suggests a new multi-component composition relationship with the CF, as well as a correlation with the silica content of the exoplanet mantle. We also report the mineralogies of our materials as possibilities for that of lava worlds. This database is a tool to aid in the interpretation of future spectra of lava worlds that will be collected by the James Webb Space Telescope and future missions