Michal Z wrote:Jeffrey, what do you think happens to a planet like Neptune or Uranus when it is captured in an orbit close to the host star like Mercury or Venus?
It loses its outer atmosphere at an increased rate due to photoevaporation, and moves along this graph to the bottom right.
The amount of core material that is allowed to build up will decrease and the core will expand slightly due to the atmosphere's weight being lifted. This meaning the core will expand slightly and the crust will readjust, and contract/cool again to make up for the change in internal pressure.
The atmospheric composition will also change as the heavier compounds and elements become more and more exposed. The object will also puff out, making the object less dense due to increased heating on the outside of the object.
The hydrogen that does not escape will have already combined with a multitude of other elements such as oxygen, and depending on the duration of the heating from the host, the thick hydrogen atmosphere will begin showing the thick water ocean interior. If it stays there for even longer periods of time (granted the host star has also cooled down significantly by this time), then the water oceans will begin evaporating at a much lower rate. I mean to say that the host will move down the graph to the lower right hand side as well. The two objects will evolve together, but the host much more rapidly as it is the larger one of the two and is losing heat and mass at a much higher rate per unit volume/mass than the companion.
There is a hell of a lot more to it. After all, it is a massive theory now I can't remember all of it. I mean, I can remember it, its just organization of the principles that I'm still working on to this day. The specifics... bridging all the physical and life sciences together, it will take many more years. I have almost 300 different papers that overview various ideas, some flat wrong, most just outline basic principles. Gosh, its been almost 6 years now. I'm surprised EU hasn't caught on yet. I guess the theory has to be worked out to the most minute detail and become well known by everybody who isn't even interested in science before it is accepted. By that time it will be common knowledge anyways, and I'll probably be dead. hahaha!!!