Shanghai Astronomical Observatory Astrophysics Colloquium

Title: Climates of Close-in Terrestrial Exoplanets: from Icy Worlds to Lava Worlds

Speaker: Prof. Feng Ding (Peking University)

Time: 15:00, Thursday, 18 June 2026

Tencent Meeting: 46822606747 password: 6360

Location: Lecture Hall, 3rd floor

Invited by: Chenliang Huang

Abstract：To date, more than 6,000 exoplanets have been discovered and confirmed out of the billions that exist in our galaxy. About one-sixth of the confirmed exoplanets are estimated as terrestrial ones, and their climates may vary greatly compared to their counterparts in our solar system (i.e., Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars). Characterizing the climates on these planets will improve our understanding of terrestrial climate evolution. In this talk, I will discuss two types of climate on close-in terrestrial exoplanets. (1) For planets receiving Venus-like stellar radiation, the primordial steam atmospheres are possible to collapse on the surface under certain circumstances, and the condensed surface water reservoir is relevant to the regional habitability of such types of planets. With a two-column framework, I will show that this climate transition is triggered by positive Planck feedback around a tipping point that determines the maximum water mass on the surface. (2) For planets receiving extremely intense radiation, the substellar surface is hot enough to melt into a magma ocean. Supersonic flows are expected from the dayside to the nightside if the atmosphere is dominated by mineral vapors, but are often assumed to be axisymmetric in previous work. With the perturbation method, I will show how the Coriolis effect breaks the substellar symmetry and impacts observations.

CV：Feng Ding is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, and a Boya Young Scholar. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Physics, Peking University in 2008, and earned his Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Chicago in 2017. From 2017 to 2022, he conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard University. He joined the School of Physics at Peking University in August 2022. His research focuses on the theory and numerical simulation of terrestrial planet climates. His current research direction is how the water cycle within the climate system of terrestrial planets influences the long‑term evolution of the climate, with a particular focus on special climate states where the planetary water content is much higher or much lower than that of modern Earth.

Koushare link to the recorded presentation