A New Family of Planets ? "Ocean Planets"

A. Leger (1) , Franck Selsis , C. Sotin (2) , T. Guillot (3) , D. Despois (4, 5, 6) , D. Mawet (1) , M. Ollivier (1) , A. Labeque (1) , C. Valette (1) , F. Brachet (1) , B. Chazelas (1) , H. Lammer

1 IAS - Institut d'astrophysique spatiale
2 LPGN - Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique de Nantes [UMR 6112]
3 CASSIOPEE - Laboratoire de Cosmologie, Astrophysique Stellaire & Solaire, de Planétologie et de Mécanique des Fluides
4 L3AB - Laboratoire d'astrodynamique, d'astrophysique et d'aéronomie de bordeaux
5 LAB - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux [Pessac]
6 OASU - Observatoire aquitain des sciences de l'univers

A new family of planets is considered which is between rochy terrestrial planets and gaseous giant ones: Öcean-Planets\". We present the possible formation, composition and internal models of these putative planets, including that of their ocean, as well as their possible Exobiology interest. These planets should be detectable by planet detection missions such as Eddington and Kepler, and possibly COROT (lauch scheduled in 2006). They would be ideal targets for spectroscopic missions such as Darwin/TPF.

Domaines: Cosmologie et astrophysique extra-galactique [astro-ph.CO]; Astrophysique [astro-ph]

A. Leger, Franck Selsis, C. Sotin, T. Guillot, D. Despois, et al.. A New Family of Planets ? "Ocean Planets". Icarus, 2004, 169, pp.499-504. ⟨10.1016/j.icarus.2004.01.001⟩. ⟨hal-00007589⟩