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Subtitle: "An abundance of medium-sized worlds is challenging planet-formation models."
doi:10.1038/480302a

Super-Earths give theorists a super headache

1 posted on 12/17/2011 4:48:53 PM PST by SunkenCiv
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To: SunkenCiv

Their models are wrong? I mean challenged. Maybe they should just make up favorable data like climate change models. I think man forgets his place in the universe.


6 posted on 12/17/2011 5:01:20 PM PST by momincombatboots (Back to West by G-d Virginia.)
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To: SunkenCiv

As the technology gets better the more we find out we don’t know.

I’d be interesting in knowing what percentage of these unexpected planets are orbiting single stars like our sun which is in a minority.


7 posted on 12/17/2011 5:05:31 PM PST by cripplecreek (Stand with courage or shut up and do as you're told.)
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To: SunkenCiv

“You can’t just tweak the parameters. You need to think about the physics.”

No, really? LOL!


8 posted on 12/17/2011 5:12:51 PM PST by mrreaganaut (Stupidity killed the cat. Curiosity was framed.)
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To: SunkenCiv

“Their very existence upsets conventional models of planetary formation and, furthermore, most of them are in tight orbits around their host star, precisely where the modellers say they shouldn’t be.”

They likely migrated inward.

It just shows that solar systems are like snowflakes, and ours may be a thankfully placid freak.


10 posted on 12/17/2011 5:17:05 PM PST by VanDeKoik (1 million in stimulus dollars paid for this tagline!)
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To: SunkenCiv

I wonder if our world is just a wimpy “super-earth’. Our study of planetary systems prior systems before the 1990’s was like studying animals, but being confined to one small area. We might be on the short end of the bell curve as far as planetary mass goes. Considering that the planets that are smaller than earth that we have hard evidence for have very thin or no atmospheres.


23 posted on 12/17/2011 6:21:50 PM PST by jmcenanly (Things will be better in 2013)
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To: SunkenCiv

Sounds like a sampling bias, we can only detect the planet that our systems can see.

As for planetary formation models, we have a dearth of real data to test our theories on. No surprise then that an input of real data shows deficiencies in our models.


24 posted on 12/17/2011 6:24:40 PM PST by DBrow
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