Planet Mass and Metallicity: The Exoplanets and Solar System Connection

Abstract

Theoretical studies of giant planet formation suggest that substantial quantities of metals - elements heavier than hydrogen and helium - can be delivered by solid accretion during the envelope-assembly phase. This metal enhancement process is believed to diminish as a function of planet mass, leading to predictions for a mass-metallicity relationship. This picture is supported by the abundance of CH$_4$ in solar system giant planets, which is unaffected by condensation, unlike H$_2$O. However, all of the solar system giants exhibit some evidence for stratification of metals outside of their cores. In this context, two fundamental questions are whether metallicity of giant planets inferred from observations of the outer envelope layers represents their bulk metallicities, and if not, how are metals distributed within these planets. Comparing the mass-metallicity relationship inferred for solar system giants with various tracers of exoplanet metallicity has yielded a range of results. There is evidence of a solar-system-like mass-metallicity trend using bulk density estimates of exoplanets. However, transit-spectroscopy-based tracers of exoplanet metallicity, which probe only the outer layers of the envelope, are less clear about a mass-metallicity trend and radial composition gradients. The large number of known exoplanets enables statistical characterization. We develop a formalism for comparing both the metallicity inferred for the outer envelope and the metallicity inferred using the bulk density and show this combination may offer insights into metal stratification within planetary envelopes. Thus, future exoplanet observations with JWST and Ariel will be able to shed light on the conditions governing radial composition gradients in exoplanets and, perhaps, provide information about the factors controlling stratification and convection in our solar system gas giants.