Planetary Science

Planetary science includes the investigation of planets and planetary systems. In our group, we characterize both the planets in our Solar System, as well as planets around other stars (exoplanets). While our research is mostly theoretical (numerical) it is often used for the interpretation of  data from space missions and ground-based observations.

The questions we aim to answer include:

• Is our Solar-System unique?
• How did the Solar-System form?
• What are planets made of?
• How is the composition changes with depth?
• How can we link planetary composition with planet formation and evolution?

We also characterize exoplanets, focusing on planets with measured masses and radii, giant planets with measured atmospheric compositions and/or planets that are detected by imaging. We model the interiors of the planets, as well as their formation and evolutionary paths. We also explore how various model assumptions, equations of state, etc affect the characterization and search for trends and correlations in exoplanetary data.