UCLA: Ancient Stars Shed Light on Earth’s Similarities to Other Planets

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UCLA: Ancient Stars Shed Light on Earth’s Similarities to Other Planets

Post by bystander » Fri Oct 25, 2019 5:15 pm

Ancient Stars Shed Light on Earth’s Similarities to Other Planets
University of California, Los Angeles | 2019 Oct 17

New method used to study planets’ geochemistry implies that Earth is not unique

Earth-like planets may be common in the universe, a new UCLA study implies. The team of astrophysicists and geochemists presents new evidence that the Earth is not unique. ...

The scientists, led by Alexandra Doyle, ... developed a new method to analyze in detail the geochemistry of planets outside of our solar system. Doyle did so by analyzing the elements in rocks from asteroids or rocky planet fragments that orbited six white dwarf stars. ...

White dwarf stars are dense, burned-out remnants of normal stars. Their strong gravitational pull causes heavy elements like carbon, oxygen and nitrogen to sink rapidly into their interiors, where the heavy elements cannot be detected by telescopes. The closest white dwarf star Doyle studied is about 200 light-years from Earth and the farthest is 665 light-years away.

“By observing these white dwarfs and the elements present in their atmosphere, we are observing the elements that are in the body that orbited the white dwarf,” Doyle said. The white dwarf’s large gravitational pull shreds the asteroid or planet fragment that is orbiting it, and the material falls onto the white dwarf, she said. “Observing a white dwarf is like doing an autopsy on the contents of what it has gobbled in its solar system.” ...

Oxygen Fugacities of Extrasolar Rocks: Evidence for an Earth-like Geochemistry of Exoplanets ~ Alexandra E. Doyle et al
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