Proto-planetary Disk Composition-dependent Element Volatility In The Context Of Rocky Planet Formation

The compositions of the Solar System terrestrial bodies are fractionated from that of the Sun, where elemental depletions in the bulk rocky bodies correlate with element volatility, expressed in its 50% condensation temperature.

However, because element volatility depends on disk gas composition, it is not mandated that elemental fractionation trends derived from the solar-terrestrial scenario apply to other planetary systems. Here, we expand upon previous efforts to quantify element volatility during disk condensation, and how this affects rocky planet compositional diversity.

We simulate condensation sequences for a sample of 1000 initial disk compositions based on observed stellar abundances. We present parametrisations of how element 50% condensation temperatures depend on disk composition, and apply element fractionation trends with appropriate element volatilty to stellar abundances to simulate compositions of rocky exoplanets with the same volatile depletion pattern as the Earth, providing a robust and conservative lower limit to the compositional diversity of rocky exoplanets.

Here we show that Earth-like planets emerge from low-C-to-O disks and graphite-bearing planets from medium-to-high-C-to-O disks. Furthermore, we identify an intermediate-C-to-O class of planets characterized by Mg and Si depletion, leading to relatively high abundances of Fe, Ca, and Al.

We show that devolatilisation patterns could be adapted potentially with disk composition-dependent condensation temperatures to make predictions of rocky planet bulk compositions within individual systems. The outcomes of our analysis suggest that accounting for disk composition-dependent condensation temperatures means that we can expect an even broader range of possible rocky planet compositions than has previously been considered.

Rob J. Spaargaren, Oliver Herbort, Haiyang S. Wang, Stephen J. Mojzsis, Paolo Sossi

Comments: 19 pages, 16 figures; Submitted to A&A
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2509.03724 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2509.03724v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2509.03724
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Submission history
From: Rob Spaargaren
[v1] Wed, 3 Sep 2025 21:11:47 UTC (24,504 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.03724
Astrobiology, exoplanet,