Geocheminar spring-2016

How Can Exoplanets Teach Us About the Earth and Planetary Diversity?

The Earth is a habitable, dynamic planet, with plate tectonics creating a deep water and carbon cycle. These cycles regulate surface and atmospheric C and water abundances, and therefore long-term climate, which is vital to Earth's habitability. The driving force behind plate tectonics is the convection of the mantle. The fact that the Earth transports its interior heat via convection instead of conduction is a result of a confluence of factors that include the internal energy budget as well as mantle size and composition. Relative to the Sun stars that host extrasolar planets vary in their refractory rock-building element proportions relative to Si by an order of magnitude. This variation will create terrestrial planets with unique mineralogies and dynamical behavior. How similar these planets are to Earth, chemically and physically, is the focus of this talk. Here, I will present results from my work relating stellar composition to planetary mineralogy and structure with with the end goal being to answer the question: “Is the Earth special?”