SWaB: Ask Ethan: Are “super-Earths” really the most common planets in the Universe?
- notFritzArgelander
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SWaB: Ask Ethan: Are “super-Earths” really the most common planets in the Universe?
- ThinkerX
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Re: SWaB: Ask Ethan: Are “super-Earths” really the most common planets in the Universe?
Okay...it's way past time for a new planetary classification scheme, one that can be introduced into what's left of the public school system without undo havoc...
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Re: SWaB: Ask Ethan: Are “super-Earths” really the most common planets in the Universe?
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Re: SWaB: Ask Ethan: Are “super-Earths” really the most common planets in the Universe?
https://phys.org/news/2015-12-mars-earth.html
Might be an 'ice line' thing, might be something else.
In terms of their size and mass, Earth and Mars are quite different. With a mean radius of 6371 km and a mass of 5.97×1024 kg, Earth is the fifth largest and fifth most-massive planet in the Solar System, and the largest of the terrestrial planets. Mars, meanwhile, has a radius of approximately 3,396 km at its equator (3,376 km at its polar regions), which is the equivalent of roughly 0.53 Earths. However, it's mass is just 6.4185 x 1023 kg, which is around 15% that of Earth's.
Venus is closer, about 5% less dense than Earth.
Super-Earths in lower metallicity systems, hmm...could be say twice the size of Earth with only half the density. And have some interesting geologies.
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