ASTRONOMERS have found two ‘puffy planets’ that seemed to be turning into rocky ‘super-Earths’.
Puffy planets get their nickname because they’re small and gaseous with ‘puffy’ atmospheres.
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A few have been found outside of our solar system and experts have just identified two they think are changing.
It seems the two exoplanets are transforming and becoming rocky.
This would make them be considered something called a ‘super-Earth’.
A super-Earth is a rocky planet several times the mass of our own world.
If the researchers are correct, the two puffy planets are having their atmospheres stripped by the star they orbit.
This process is turning them into a planet more like our own and could be a good example of how rocky planets can form.
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Puffy planets have a rocky core but are coated in gas making them like a mini Neptune.
Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope investigated the two mini-Neptunes orbiting HD 63433, a star that’s 73 light-years away.
Michael Zhang, the lead author of the study, said: “Most astronomers suspected that young, mini-Neptunes must have evaporating atmospheres.
“But nobody had ever caught one in the process of doing so until now.”
You can find the research in The Astronomical Journal.
Could we live on a super-Earth?
Unfortunately, a planet being rocky doesn’t necessarily mean it would be good to support life.
Living on a super-Earth would require super strength.
Some researchers think that a super-Earth 10 times the mass of our planet would have 10 times the gravity.
That would take a toll on the human body.
Super-Earth’s may not be habitable for lots of other reasons.
They’d need to be in the ‘habitable zone’ of the star they orbit to avoid the negative impacts of radiation.
They’d also need the right amount of resources and oxygen for humans to stay alive.
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