Rocky Exoplanets are Diverse and Exotic than Assumed

Astronomers have assumed the first estimates of the different sorts of rocks found on planets orbiting neighbouring stars. The study discovered that the rock kinds are made up of unusual and diversified components that aren’t found anywhere else in the solar system. The researchers reported their findings in the journal Nature Communications.

Astronomers have discovered over 4,000 planets outside of our solar system, there is no unanimity on the types of material that make up these worlds. National Science Foundation Noirlab astronomer Siyi Xu collaborated with California State University, Fresno geologist Keith Putirka to learn more about this to see if these worlds are similar to our own.

Xu stated in a press statement from the National Science Foundation that while some exoplanets that historically orbited dirty white dwarfs contain rock compositions that are foreign to our solar system.  In the Solar System, they have no direct equivalents.The researchers looked at the atmospheres of white dwarfs, which are stellar leftovers left behind when stars of similar size to the sun run out of nuclear fuel and fall gravitationally, shedding their outer layers in supernova explosions.

They are largely made up of material that was originally part of the star’s core, hydrogen, and helium, these compact collapsed stellar cores are a good option for such a survey. When debris from Rocky worlds, such as planets and asteroids, falls into the atmospheres of white dwarfs, they become “polluted.”