PLANETARY INTERNAL STRUCTURE
I. Baraffe (University of Exeter, Physics and Astronomy, Exeter, United Kingdom),
G. Chabrier (Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, CRAL, France),
J. Fortney (University of California, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Santa Cruz, United States),
C. Sotin (JPL, NASA, Pasadena, United States)
This chapter will review the most recent advancement on the topic of terrestrial and giant planets interiors,
including solar system and extra-solar objects. Starting from an observed mass-radius diagram for
all known planets in the Universe, we will discuss the various types of planets appearing in this diagram
and describe internal structures for each types. The review will summarize the status of theoretical and
experimental works performed in the field of equation of states (EOS) for materials relevant to planetary
interiors and will address the main theoretical and experimental uncertainties and challenges. It
will discuss the impact of new EOS on interior structures and bulk composition determination. We will
discuss important dynamical processes which strongly impact the interior and evolutionary properties
of planets (plate tectonics, convection, semiconvection) and describe non standard models recently
suggested for our Giant planets. We will address the case of short-period, strongly irradiated exoplanets
and discuss some of the physical mechanisms which have been suggested to explain their
anomalously large radius. We will also address key questions in the context of a Protostars and Planets
conference: Can we easily link interior structures and formation processes? Can we distinguish a
brown dwarf from a planet? We will finally discuss future missions which will advance our knowledge
on planetary interior structures.
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