This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Roentgenium111 (talk | contribs) at 19:22, 29 April 2014 (rm. essentially unused (AFAICS) alt. name). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 19:22, 29 April 2014 by Roentgenium111 (talk | contribs) (rm. essentially unused (AFAICS) alt. name)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Sub-Earth is a classification of planets "substantially less massive" than Earth and Venus. In the Solar System, this category includes Mercury and Mars. Sub-Earth exoplanets are the most difficult planet type to detect because their small sizes and masses produce the weakest signal. Despite the difficulty, one of the first exoplanets found was a sub-Earth around a millisecond pulsar PSR B1257+12. Kepler opened the realm of sub-Earths by discovering them. On January 10, 2012 Kepler discovered the first three sub-Earths around an ordinary star Kepler-42. As of April 2014, Kepler has 45 confirmed planets that are smaller than Earth with 17 of them being smaller than 0.8 Rⴲ. In addition, there are over 280 planet candidates with <1Rⴲ with 119 of them being smaller than 0.8 Rⴲ.
Sub-Earths commonly lack substantial atmospheres because of their low gravity and weak magnetic fields, allowing stellar radiation to wear away the atmospheres. Due to their small sizes, and unless there's significant tidal forces when orbiting close to the parent star, sub-Earths also have short periods of geologic activity.
References
- ^ Sinukoff, E.; Fulton, B.; Scuderi, L.; Gaidos, E. (2013-08-28). "Below One Earth Mass: The Detection, Formation, and Properties of Subterrestrial Worlds". arXiv:1308.6308 .
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ignored (help) - http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/
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