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> Half of nearby stars have at least one (and often several) worlds with masses substantially greater than Earth and orbital periods ranging from mere days to w
by brianberns 8y ago
> Half of nearby stars have at least one (and often several) worlds with masses substantially greater than Earth and orbital periods ranging from mere days to weeks
Perhaps it just seems like such large inner exoplanets are so common because they're easier to find with our current techniques?
- samatman 8y agoIt says "half of nearby stars" That's common. It's half! They're also easier to find, sure. Maybe the other half are exactly like Sol but we can't tell yet. But nothing can make 1 out of 2 stars near enough to make out into something uncommon, except our local cluster of stars itself being weird in some way. Which is possible.
- ianai 8y agoTo me, that sounds like the Star forming process often results in masses below critical orbiting formed stars. I’m wondering whether they’re all gaseous. It also seems a little too uniform to believe without much more study. We could easily find out these sorts of systems have asteroid belts and planets at a farther distance than we can easily detect. Or maybe the failed stars failed because they suck up the metals in the system (anything past helium in this sentence).