The recent discovery of super-Earths (masses ≤ 10 M⊕) has initiated a discussion about conditions for habitable worlds. Among these is the mode of convection, which influences a planet’s thermal evolution and surface conditions. On Earth, plate tectonics has been proposed as a necessary condition for life. Here we show, that super-Earths will also have plate tectonics. We demonstrate that as pl...

The recent discovery of super-Earths (masses ≤ ) has initiated a discussion about conditions for habitable 10 M worlds. Among these is the mode of convection, which influences a planet’s thermal evolution and surface conditions. On Earth, plate tectonics has been proposed as a necessary condition for life. Here we show that super-Earths will also have plate tectonics. We demonstrate that as pla...

It is shown that rare earths can be distributed between two immiscible ionic liquids, allowing the transfer of the rare earths from one ionic liquid phase to another. The ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride was used as the initial feed phase and the ionic liquid trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium bis(2,4,4trimethylpentyl)phosphinate (Cyphos IL 104) as the extracting phase. The rare e...

An overview is presented of classic and more recent applications of liquid chromatography for the analysis of metal species. The different approaches involving ion-exchange, ion-pair, and chelation separation mechanisms are discussed as well as the new philosophy of simply removing interferents before specific detections of metal ions (alkali and alakaline earths, rare earths, heavy and transit...

While the recent microlensing discoveries of super-Earths orbiting two M dwarf stars have been taken as support for the core accretion mechanism of giant planet formation, we show here that these planets could also have been formed by the competing mechanism of disk instability, coupled with photoevaporative loss of their gaseous envelopes by a strong external source of UV radiation, i.e., an O...

We develop a semi-analytic model for planet formation during the pre-main sequence contraction phase of a low mass star. During this evolution, the stellar magnetosphere maintains a fixed ratio between the inner disk radius and the stellar radius. As the star contracts at constant effective temperature, the ‘snow line’, which separates regions of rocky planet formation from regions of icy plane...

Adiabatic compression is a key factor that exerts control over thermal convection in the compressible solid mantle of super-Earths. To discuss the effects of adiabatic compression, we present a numerical model of transient convection in the cooling mantle of a super-Earth that is ten times larger in size than the Earth. The calculations started with the shallow mantle that was hotter than expec...

The study was carried out by determining the effect of calcium ethylenediaminetetraacetate on the excretion and distribution in rats of a number of rare earths and yttrium, and correlating the magnitude of these effects with the stability constants of the chelates formed with some of the rare earths. These rare earths were selected because they form a long series of closely related elements wit...