Nadine Nettelmann - March 2, 2018

Solar system giant planet interior modeling

Knowledge of composition and internal structure of the Solar system giant 
planets can help us understand planet formation and the conditions in the 
early Solar system. Though useful interior models exist for decades, new 
constraints from material physics and observations suggest more complex, 
inhomogeneous interiors. However, while new planet models are flourishing, 
the land of consistent models is still a desert.
In this talk I will review and discuss interior and evolution models for the 
individual planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. We will see that 
inhomogeneous models are most promising, in particular as there is also 
emerging evidence of inhomogeneous interiors from giant planet formation models.