Hi All

Some interesting articles about big planets with an exobiological potential.

First, Jupiter-seeds, what the core of Jupiter would look like it if it didn't gobble up lots of hydro-helium...

http://au.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0308324

...the article produces some interesting models of planets massing in at 6 earths - 50% silicate/metal core, 50% water/ices - as well as discussing the general characteristics of ocean planets.

While an ocean planet might form primordially it also might be the end result of atmosphere stripping of Neptune-class planets that have migrated in towards their stars. While atmospheres are stable against Jeans escape at the black-body temp any "hot-Neptune" is likely to reach the Far-UV in the spectrum will heat the thermosphere of a planet to extreme temperatures and cause rapid hydrogen/helium loss, stripping any Neptune mass planet to its ice/rock core within a giga-year. This process is helped along by the fact that young stars pump out more FUV than mature stars.

Here's the link...

http://www.astrsp-mrs.fr/projets/corot/pub/lammer_poster.pdf

...which makes for interesting reading.

There's an amazing amount of exoplanetology work out there... a boom field almost.

Adam