"The elements formed from a star's demise shape the structure of the planets that rise from the ashes. What kinds of planet does a solar system cook up? It depends on the ingredients you throw in. Astronomers report that the planets that arise around a star can have a vast array of structures that depend on the elements swimming around that star."
"The elements formed from a star's demise shape the structure of the planets that rise from the ashes."
Elements produced by a star's death determine the materials available for planet formation in the surrounding disk. Those elemental abundances influence mineralogy, core-to-mantle ratios, and volatile inventories of emerging planets. Variations in metals, silicates, carbon, oxygen and other elements yield diverse planetary internal structures and surface compositions. Different mixtures of ingredients can produce planets that differ in size, density, tectonics, atmosphere formation and potential habitability. Planetary diversity across systems reflects the particular elemental recipe supplied by prior stellar nucleosynthesis and ejecta.
Read at Nature
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]