Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




EXO WORLDS
Bricks to build an Earth found in every planetary system
by Staff Writers
Llandudno, UK (SPX) Jul 09, 2015


Rich spectrum of colours in the rocks around the Mutnovsky and Gorley volcanoes on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The mineralogy of rocks on Earth provide the chemical building blocks needed for life. Image courtesy Europlanet/A. Samper. For a larger version of this image please go here.

Earth-like planets orbiting other stars in the Milky Way are three times more likely to have the same type of minerals as Earth than astronomers had previously thought. In fact, conditions for making the building blocks of Earth-like rocks are ubiquitous throughout the Milky Way. The results of a new study of the chemical evolution of our galaxy are being presented by Prof Brad Gibson, of the University of Hull, at the National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno.

Minerals made from building blocks of carbon, oxygen, magnesium, and silicon are thought to control the landscape of rocky planets that form in solar systems around Sun-like stars. A subtle difference in mineralogy can have a big effect on plate tectonics, heating and cooling of the planet's surface, all of which can affect whether a planet is ultimately habitable.

Until now, astronomers thought that rocky planets fell into three distinct groups: those with a similar set of building blocks to Earth, those that had a much richer concentration of carbon, and those that had significantly more silicon than magnesium.

"The ratio of elements on Earth has led to the chemical conditions 'just right' for life. Too much magnesium or too little silicon and your planet ends up having the wrong balance between minerals to form the type of rocks that make up the Earth's crust," said Gibson. "Too much carbon and your rocky planet might turn out to be more like the graphite in your pencil than the surface of a planet like the Earth."

Gibson and team from the E.A. Milne Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Hull have constructed a sophisticated simulation of the chemical evolution of the Milky Way, which results in an accurate recreation of the Milky Way as we see it today.

This has allowed them to zoom in and examine the chemistry of processes, such as planetary formation, in detail. Their findings came as something of a surprise.

"At first, I thought we'd got the model wrong!" explained Gibson. "As an overall representation of the Milky Way, everything was pretty much perfect. Everything was in the right place; the rates of stars forming and stars dying, individual elements and isotopes all matched observations of what the Milky Way is really like. But when we looked at planetary formation, every solar system we looked at had the same elemental building blocks as Earth, and not just one in three.

"We couldn't find a fault with the model, so we went back and checked the observations. There we found some uncertainties that were causing the one-in-three result. Removing these, observations agreed with our predictions that the same elemental building blocks are found in every exoplanet system, wherever it is in the galaxy."

The cloud out of which the solar system formed has approximately twice as many atoms of oxygen as carbon, and roughly five atoms of silicon for every six of magnesium. Observers trying to ascertain the chemical make-up of planetary systems have tended to look at large planets orbiting very bright stars, which can lead to uncertainties of 10 or 20 per cent.

In addition, historically the spectra of oxygen and nickel have been hard to differentiate. Improvements in spectroscopy techniques have cleaned up the oxygen spectra, providing data that matches the Hull team's estimates.

"Even with the right chemical building blocks, not every planet will be just like Earth, and conditions allowing for liquid water to exist on the surface are needed for habitability," said Gibson. "We only need to look to Mars and Venus to see how differently terrestrial planets can evolve. However, if the building blocks are there, then it's more likely that you will get Earth-like planets - and three times more likely than we'd previously thought."

The research on the Galactic Terrestrial Zone has been carried out by Brad Gibson, Chris Jordan, Kate Pilkingon, Marco Pignatari at the E.A. Milne Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Hull.


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
Royal Astronomical Society
Lands Beyond Beyond - extra solar planets - news and science
Life Beyond Earth






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








EXO WORLDS
Observing the birth of a planet
Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Jul 05, 2015
Observing time at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) on Paranal Mountain is a very precious commodity - and yet the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile spent an entire night with a high-resolution infrared camera pointed at a single object in the night sky. The data collected by the Naco optics instrument enabled an international team headed by ETH Zurich's Sascha Quanz to confirm its earli ... read more


EXO WORLDS
Russia to Land Space Vessel on Moon's Polar Region in 2019

Moon engulfed in permanent, lopsided dust cloud

Crashing comets may explain mysterious lunar swirls

Google Lunar X-Prize meets Yoda

EXO WORLDS
Opportunity Gets Back to Work

NASA wants to send microbes to Mars to prepare for human habitation

Opportunity Rover's 7th Mars Winter to Include New Study Area

Could This Become the First Mars Airplane

EXO WORLDS
US selects four astronauts for commercial flight

NASA selects leading-edge concepts for continued study

Docking Adapter Sets Stage for Commercial Crew Crew

Targeted LEDs could provide efficient lighting for plants grown in space

EXO WORLDS
Chinese earth station is for exclusively scientific and civilian purposes

Cooperation in satellite technology put Belgium, China to forefront

China set to bolster space, polar security

China's super "eye" to speed up space rendezvous

EXO WORLDS
'Jedi' astronauts say 'no fear' as they gear for ISS trip

Relief as Russian cargo ship docks at space station

Loss of SpaceX Cargo Resupply Mission No Threat to ISS Crew Security

Russia launches Soyuz Progress with supplies for ISS

EXO WORLDS
India to launch its heaviest commercial mission to date

Final payload integration begins for next Ariane 5 launch

Licensed commercial spaceport to be built in Houston, Texas

More Fidelity for SpaceX In-Flight Abort Reduces Risk

EXO WORLDS
Bricks to build an Earth found in every planetary system

Observing the birth of a planet

Precise ages of largest number of stars hosting planets ever measured

Can Planets Be Rejuvenated Around Dead Stars?

EXO WORLDS
Brownian motion phenomena of self-powered liquid metal motors

Omnidirectional free space wireless charging developed

To conduct, or to insulate? That is the question

Nanospiked bacteria are the brightest hard X-ray emitters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.