Outstanding Questions in Giant Planet Theory

TL;DR

This review discusses unresolved questions in giant planet theory, emphasizing their importance for understanding planetary formation, composition, and habitability, and highlights future research directions.

Contribution

It identifies key open questions in giant planet science, guiding future research and observational efforts to deepen understanding.

Findings

Giant planets' composition informs formation conditions

Interior studies reveal material behavior at extreme conditions

Open questions remain despite progress in theory and observation

Abstract

Giant planets have key role in shaping planetary systems. Their composition reveals information on the conditions at which planets form, and their interiors serve as natural laboratories to explore the behavior of materials at extreme conditions. They can also host large regular moons that can be habitable. In addition, outside the solar system, giant exoplanets remain the ideal planets for detection and characterization. However, despite decades of investigations, and much progress on both the theoretical and observational fonts, several key open questions remain unanswered. In this short review, I highlight a few open questions in the field with the hope that they can be addressed with future research and observational data.