Volatile-Rich Earth-Mass Planets in the Habitable Zone

Authors:
Marc J. Kuchner

Comments: 12 pages, including 1 figure. Submitted to ApJ letters March 9, 2003

Planets that form beyond the snow line with too little mass to seed rapid gas
accretion (<~ 10 Earth masses) should be rich in volatile ices like water and
ammonia. Some of these planets should migrate inward by interacting with a
circumstellar disk or with other planets. Such objects can retain their
volatiles for billions of years or longer at ~1 AU as their atmospheres undergo
slow hydrodynamic escape. These objects could appear in future surveys for
extrasolar Earth analogs.

References and citations for this submission:

SLAC-SPIRES HEP (refers to ,
cited by, arXiv reformatted)