The search for lunar mantle rocks exposed on the surface of the Moon

The lunar surface is ancient and well-preserved, recording Solar System history and planetary evolution processes. Ancient basin-scale impacts excavated lunar mantle rocks, which are expected to remain present on the surface. Sampling these rocks would provide insight into fundamental planetary processes, including differentiation and magmatic evolution. There is contention among lunar scientists as to what lithologies make up the upper lunar mantle, and where they may have been exposed on the surface. We review dynamical models of lunar differentiation in the context of recent experiments and spacecraft data, assessing candidate lithologies, their distribution, and implications for lunar evolution.

How does the mass and activity history of the host star affect the population of low-mass planets?

<p>The evolution of the atmospheres of low and intermediate-mass planets is strongly connected to the physical properties of their host stars. The types and the past activities of planet-hosting stars can, therefore, affect the overall planetary population. We perform a comparative study of sub-Neptune-like planets orbiting stars of different masses and different evolutionary histories. As a model of atmospheric evolution, we employ our own framework combining planetary evolution in MESA with a realistic prescription of the escape of hydrogen-dominated atmospheres. We discuss general patterns of the evolved population as a function of planetary and stellar parameters. The final populations look qualitatively similar in terms of the atmospheres' survival around different stars, but quantitatively different, with this difference accentuated for planets orbiting more massive stars. We will discuss the potential input from different atmospheric escape mechanisms in shaping these populations.</p>

Coupled models of magma oceans and their primordial atmospheres: volatile speciation, cooling history, and impact of condensables

<p>The earliest atmospheres of rocky planets originate from extensive volatile release during magma ocean epochs that occur during assembly of the planet. These establish the initial distribution of the major volatile elements between different chemical reservoirs that subsequently evolve via geological cycles. Current theoretical techniques are limited in exploring the anticipated range of compositional and thermal scenarios of early planetary evolution. However, these are of prime importance to aid astronomical inferences on the environmental context and geological history of extrasolar planets. In order to advance the potential synergies between exoplanet observations and inferrences on the earliest history and climate state of the solar system terrestial planets, I will present a novel numerical framework that links an evolutionary, vertically-resolved model of the planetary silicate mantle with a radiative-convective model of the atmosphere. Numerical simulations using this framework illustrate the sensitive dependence of mantle crystallization and atmosphere build-up on volatile speciation and predict variations in atmospheric spectra with planet composition that may be detectable with future observations of exoplanets. Magma ocean thermal sequences fall into three general classes of primary atmospheric volatile with increasing cooling timescale: CO, N<sub>2</sub>, and O<sub>2</sub> with minimal effect on heat flux, H<sub>2</sub>O, CO<sub>2</sub>, and CH<sub>4</sub> with intermediate influence, and H<sub>2</sub> with several orders of magnitude increase in solidification time and atmosphere vertical stratification. In addition to these time-resolved results, I will present a novel formulation and application of a multi-species moist-adiabat for condensable-rich magma ocean and archean earth analog atmospheres, and outline how the cooling of such atmospheres can lead to exotic climate states that provide testable predictions for terrestrial exoplanets.</p>

Characterisation of the hydrodynamic atmospheric escape of HD 209458 b, HD 189733 b, and GJ 3470 b

<p>Hydrodynamic escape is the most efficient atmospheric mechanism of planetary mass loss and has a large impact on planetary evolution. However, the lack of observations remained this mechanism poorly understood. Therefore, new observations of the He I triplet at 10830 Å provide key information to advance hydrodynamic escape knowledge. In this work, we analyse the hydrodynamic escape of three exoplanets, HD209458 b, HD189733 b, and GJ 3470 b via an analysis of He triplet absorptions recently observed by the CARMENES high-resolution spectrograph, and their available Ly-alpha measurements, involving a 1D hydrodynamic model. We characterise the main upper atmospheric parameters, e.g.,  the temperature, the composition (H/He ratio), and the radial outflow velocity. We also study their hydrodynamic regime and show that HD209458 b is in the energy-limited regime, HD189733 b is in the recombination-limited regime, and GJ 3470 b is in the photon-limited regime. Details of this work can be found in [1], [2], [3].</p><p>References</p><p>[1] Lampón, M., López-Puertas, M., Lara, L.M., et al. 2020, A&A, 636, A13<br>[2] Lampón, M., López-Puertas, M., Sanz-Forcada, J., et al. 2021, A&A, 647, A129<br>[3] Lampón, M., López-Puertas, M., Czesla, S., et al. 2021, A&A, 648, L7</p>

Dedication of Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution VI to Álvaro Penteado Crósta

ABSTRACT This paper does not have an abstract. Originally, Álvaro Penteado Crósta (born on 7 August 1954) intended to be one of the volume editors of this GSA Special Paper. He was also looking forward to participating in the Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution VI conference in October 2019, for which he had long served on the organizing committee. Unfortunately, a long and serious illness derailed both these plans. Therefore, we are instead honoring our dear friend and valued colleague, Álvaro Crósta, for his longstanding and successful impact cratering work, as the mainstay of impact cratering studies in Brazil and indeed in South America, by dedicating this Special Paper to him. Álvaro Crósta has been a Full Professor (Professor Titular) of Geoscience in the fields of remote sensing, mineral exploration, and planetary geology at the Instituto de Geociências of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil. He has had a highly distinguished academic career, culminating in his tenure (2012–2017) as vice-rector of his university. In 2017, Álvaro was inducted as a Full Member (Membro Titular) into the Academia Brasileira de Ciências...

A View to Anorthosites

It seems anorthosites are by far interested by geologists because they give us great information about Earth history and how it was evolved in planetary geology. Planetary geology is subject the geology of the celestial bodies such as the planets and their moons, asteroids, comets, and meteorites. It is nearly abundant in the moon. So, it seems studying of these rocks give us good information about planetary evolution and the own early time conditions. Anorthosites can be divided into few types on earth such as: Archean-age (between 4,000 to 2,500 million years ago) anorthosites, Proterozoic (2.5 billion years ago) anorthosite (also known as massif or massif-type anorthosite) – the most abundant type of anorthosite on Earth, Anorthosite xenoliths in other rocks (often granites, kimberlites, or basalts). Furthermore, Lunar anorthosites constitute the light-colored areas of the Moon’s surface and have been the subject of much research. According to the Giant-impact hypothesis the moon and earth were both originated from ejecta of a collision between the proto-Earth and a Mars-sized planetesimal, approximately 4.5 billion years ago. The geology of the Moon (lunar science) is different from Earth. The Moon has a lower gravity and it got cooled faster due to its small size. Also, it has no plate tectonics and due to lack of a true atmosphere it has no erosion and weathering alike the earth. However, Eric A.K. Middlemost believed the astrogeology will help petrologist to make better petrogenic models to understand the magma changing process despite some terms geological differences among the Earth and other extraterrestrial bodies like the Moon. So, it seems that these future studies will clarify new facts about planet formation in planetary and earth, too.

Dynamical masses of two infant giant planets

Current theories of planetary evolution predict that infant giant planets have large radii and very low densities before they slowly contract to reach their final size after about several hundred million years 1, 2. These theoretical expectations remain untested to date, despite the increasing number of exoplanetary discoveries, as the detection and characterisation of very young planets is extremely challenging due to the intense stellar activity of their host stars 3, 4. However, the recent discoveries of young planetary transiting systems allow to place initial constraints on evolutionary models5–9. With an estimated age of 20 million years, V1298 Tau is one of the youngest solar-type stars known to host transiting planets: it harbours a multiple system composed of two Neptune-sized, one Saturn-sized, and one Jupiter-sized planets 10, 11. Here we report the dynamical masses of two of the four planets. We find that planet b, with an orbital period of 24 days, has a mass of 0.60 Jupiter masses and a density similar to the giant planets of the Solar System and other known giant exoplanets with significantly older ages 12, 13. Planet e, with an orbital period of 40 days, has a mass of 1.21 Jupiter masses and a density larger than most giant exoplanets. This is unexpected for planets at such a young age and suggests that some giant planets might evolve and contract faster than anticipated, thus challenging current models of planetary evolution.