Terrestrial Planets Could be More Common Than Gas Giants

Editor’s note: This guest post was written by Andy Tomaswick, an electrical engineer who follows space science and technology.As acclaimed astronomer Carl Sagan once famously noted, “We are all made of star-stuff.” So are the multitudes of extra-solar planets that are currently being discovered at a breathtaking pace. What Sagan meant was that all of the elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, commonly known as “metals” to astrophysicists, must be created in the interior furnaces of stars. But it takes time for stars to create these heavier elements, and since they are needed to start planets those time spans could have a major impact on solar system formation. (...)Read the rest of Terrestrial Planets Could be More Common Than Gas Giants (371 words)© nancy for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Extrasolar Planets, Kepler mission Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh