Fig. 1: Mantle dynamics of tidally-locked super-Earth exoplanets.
From: Convective dynamics in mantle of tidally-locked exoplanets
a Schematic of convective flows in a mantle layer of a tidally locked super-Earth exoplanet. Dayside faces its star permanently, leading to the surface temperature of ≈ 1000 K, whereas that of the nightside is absolute zero. b Laboratory realization of the tidally-locked hemispheric mantle to investigate its convective dynamics through optical visualization. The light sheet illuminates the TLC particles, exhibiting reddish for low and bluish for high temperatures, seeded in the glycerol solution. Four surface temperatures are controlled separately by supplying refrigerants from four independent thermostatic baths, achieving the stable imposition of horizontal and vertical temperature differences, Δθ and ΔT.
