PROTEUS

With the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomy can now characterize hot rocky extrasolar planets that are potentially similar to the conditions of the primitive Earth right after its formation. Characterizing the thermodynamic and climatic properties of these worlds will enable us to better understand the geologic conditions that enabled the origin of life on our own world. In the past years my collaborators and I have developed the numerical framework PROTEUS, which enables advanced simulation of the geophysical evolution and outgassing atmospheres of lava planets.

We propose to modularize the framework to enable flexible extension of the software environment, which brings new challenges for code sustainability and interoperability, and therefore requires significant developments in architectural design. The proposed adaptive structure of PROTEUS will enable important advances for the interpretation of exoplanet observations, which will enable scientific breakthroughs in our understanding of the nature of rocky extrasolar planets.