Artist's representation of two scenarios for a sub-Neptune planet's atmosphere-interior interface (IMAGE)
Caption
Artist's representation of two scenarios for a sub-Neptune planet's atmosphere-interior interface. In the cloudy scenario (right), clouds trap outgoing thermal radiation and push the deep atmosphere-mantle boundary to temperatures high enough to melt rock and sustain a magma ocean. In the cloud-free scenario (left), this boundary is a lot cooler and might even lack a magma ocean. Both are overlaid on the silhouette of JWST's segmented primary mirror, representing how these differences might affect what JWST sees in the observable atmospheres of sub-Neptunes
Credit
Hailey Nelson, Arizona State University
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