In the past decade astronomers have found more than 200 planets orbiting stars other than our sun. Thanks to improvements in detection methods, five super-Earths have been observed from the ground in the last two years. In the near future, with space missions Kepler and CoRoT, and other future projects/missions (i.e. Automated Planet Finder, Darwin, TPF) many more super-Earth detections are expected.
My work can help determine the composition of a planet from mass and radius measurements that will be available with Kepler and HARPS-NEF. This is the first step to really characterize this planets. In particular, if the radius lies above the Terrestrial Threshold radius (maximum radius for a rocky planet), the planet is necessarily 'ocean-like'.
How similar to Earth can super-Earths be?
GJ 876d - first super-Earth
impression by Lynette Cook, used with permission
I am interested in modelling the thermal evolution of Super-Earths and in particular assess the role of total mass in determining the thermal evolution of a planet. The Earth is the only planet known to be in a plate tectonics regime whereas the other terrestrial objects in the solar system convect with a stagnant lid. Perhaps this is not a coincidence.
Can super-Earths evolve habitable surface conditions?