Scientists have revealed a unified theory for the formation of rocky planets. A new theory of rocky planet formation may shed light on the origin of 'super-Earths,' exoplanets that are a few times larger than Earth and the most prevalent type of planet in the galaxy. Additionally, this theory ma
Scientists have revealed a unified theory for the formation of rocky planets.
professor of planetary science Konstantin Batygin , who collaborated with Alessandro Morbidelli of the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in France on the new theory.Planetary systems begin their lifecycles as large spinning disks of gas and dust that consolidate over the course of a few million years or so. Most of the gas accretes into the star at the center of the system, while solid material slowly coalesces into asteroids, comets, planets, and moons.
“A few years ago we built a model where super-Earths formed in the icy part of the protoplanetary disk and migrated all the way to the inner edge of the disk, near the star,” says Morbidelli. “The model could explain the masses and orbits of super-Earths but predicted that all are water-rich. Recent observations, however, have demonstrated that most super-Earths are rocky, like the Earth, even if surrounded by a hydrogen atmosphere. That was the death sentence for our old model.
“The answer turns out to be related to something we figured out in 2020 but didn’t realize applied to planetary formation more broadly,” Batygin says.
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