A new model could explain the scarcity of certain planet sizes.
Just 30 years ago scientists weren’t sure if any planets existed outside our solar system. Now they’ve detected more than 5,000 of them. But as astronomers have calculated these exoplanets’ sizes, a strange gap has emerged. There are plenty of “super-Earths” out there—rocky orbs about 1.4 times wider than Earth. And there are lots of “mini-Neptunes” roughly 2.4 times Earth’s width. But very few planets fall in between; it’s almost like most worlds were sized using one of two cookie cutters.
Izidoro’s work challenges this heat-based explanation, suggesting the gap results from planetary collisions instead. His team ran computer simulations based on theories of how planetary systems most likely develop: Planets that form close to stars are typically rocky, while farther-flung planets are generally extremely rich in water or ice—and most in both categories start out in the larger, mini-Neptune size range, Izidoro says.
For this collision model to hold true, planets must not lose as much mass to heat as had previously been thought, says James Owen, an astrophysicist at Imperial College London who was not involved in the new study. But on the other hand, Owen notes, “if you believe the mass-loss models, then you’d have to suggest that collisions between planetary bodies … are much less frequent than we think.”
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