Abstract

Comparative planetary science, as typically practiced over the past few decades, has looked for connections in physical processes between very small numbers of planets.  However, due to the exoplanet revolution, and in particular for transiting planets, we can use the astronomical perspective to look for trends in planetary structure and physical processes that can only be seen with a large sample size.  This work complements the pursuit of more detailed science questions that can be asked in the solar system.  I will discuss modeling work that we have done to address several exoplanet topics, including the "evaporation valley" for sub-Neptunes and super Earths, the giant planet mass-metallicity relation, connections with atmospheric physics for these planets, and the long-standing issue of the radius anomaly of hot Jupiters.