A New Class of 'Light' Super-Earth May Be Heavy in Rubies and Sapphires

[Judi Lynn]

By Charles Q. Choi, Space.com Contributor | December 23, 2018 07:18am ET

A newfound kind of super-Earth alien planet might glitter with rubies and sapphires, a new study finds.

As researchers have discovered worlds around other stars, one class of these exoplanets that popped up was the super-Earths: rocky planets that can reach up to 10 times the mass of our own. Much remains a mystery about super-Earths, since none are known in the solar system.

To shed light on super-Earths, a group of researchers working in Switzerland and England investigated how they might form. Planets coalesce from protoplanetary disks of gas and dust that surround newborn stars. Temperatures vary within these disks, depending on how close or far their ingredients are to or from stars, which influences what minerals form across the disks. The scientists reasoned that this could lead to the formation of a variety of planets that differed from one another, based on composition. [Historic Photo Is 1st View of Alien World Being Born]

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1. Corrected link (pasted twice):

https://www.space.com/42829-light-super-earths-with-rubies-sapphires.html