Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Planetary science

Evolutionary dichotomy for rocky planets

A simple model shows that a rocky planet close to its star may solidify so slowly that its water is lost to space and the planet becomes desiccated, whereas a planet farther out may solidify quickly and retain its water. See Letter p.607

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Hamano and colleagues' evolutionary model for terrestrial planets1.

References

  1. Hamano, K., Abe, Y. & Genda, H. Nature 497, 607–610 (2013).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Abe, Y. & Matsui, T. J. Geophys. Res. 90, C545–C559 (1985).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Abe, Y. Phys. Earth Planet. Int. 100, 27–39 (1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Zahnle, K. J., Kasting, J. F. & Pollack, J. B. Icarus 74, 62–97 (1988).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Elkins-Tanton, L. T. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 271, 181–191 (2008).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Mukhopadhyay, S. Nature 486, 101–104 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Touboul, M., Puchtel, I. S. & Walker, R. J. Science 335, 1065–1069 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Donahue, T. M., Hoffman, J. H., Hodges, R. R. Jr & Watson, A. J. Science 216, 630–633 (1982).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Zahnle, K. J. & Kasting, J. F. Icarus 68, 462–480 (1986).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Hashimoto, G. L., Abe, Y. & Sugita, S. J. Geophys. Res. 112, E05010 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Linda T. Elkins-Tanton.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Elkins-Tanton, L. Evolutionary dichotomy for rocky planets. Nature 497, 570–572 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/497570a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/497570a

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing