Posted on September 12, 2020 in Astronomy, Strange Planet, Science

“A planetary search is a search for life.” Natalie Patel, Kepler Important Scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center. Sometimes something really strange appears, unlike anything in our solar system, in search of a habitable planet like Earth.

The “extraterrestrial age of planets” was officially launched in October 1995 by the Nobel Prize winner. Michelle Mayor W. Didier Kiel Rose Announced the first discovery of a planet outside our solar system, an extraterrestrial planet, a planet orbiting a solar-type star in our galaxy. The gas-dependent Milky Way is similar to Jupiter, the largest gas giant in our galaxy, Planet 51 Pegasian B. Their discovery started a revolution in astronomy, and since then more than 4,100 extraterrestrial planets have been discovered in the Milky Way. And almost every day a strange new world is discovered.

The “ultimate life” of the Milky Way

Research teams from Arizona State University (ASU) and the University of Chicago have published one of these strange “things”. New research published in the Journal of Planetary Science. The researchers determined that some alien planets rich in carbon could have been made of diamond and silica in the right environment. “This planet outside Earth is unlike anything in our solar system.” Harrison Allen-Shutter of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University.

Diamond world

When stars and planets form, they form from the same gas cloud, so they have the same mass composition. A star with a low carbon to oxygen ratio will have an Earth-like planet consisting of silicates and oxides with a very small diamond content (the diamond content on Earth is about 0.001%).

However, extraterrestrial planets around stars with a higher carbon to oxygen ratio than our sun are more likely to be carbon rich. Allen Sauter and co-authors hypothesized that this carbon-rich space planet could be converted into diamonds and silicates if water (which is abundantly available in space) to create a formula rich in diamonds.

“Island World” – the frontier of an entirely new alien planet

Hypothesis testing

To test this hypothesis, the research team had to use high heat and high pressure to mimic the interior of an alien carbide planet. To do this, they used a high-pressure diamond anvil cell in the Earth and Planetary Materials Laboratory, co-author of Sim. First, they immersed silicon carbide in water and pressed the sample between the diamonds under very high pressure. Next, laser heating was performed at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois to monitor the interaction between silicon carbide and water, and X-ray measurements were made while the laser heated the sample at high pressure.

They also expected, under elevated heat and pressure, that the silicon carbide would react with water and turn into diamond and silica.

‘Proof of existence’

Some astronomers have said that the existence of other life forms in the Milky Way or other galaxies is not related. The fact that we are here gives “evidence of being” in mathematics. However, research continues until now. Planetary scientists and alien biologists use sophisticated tools in space and Earth to find planets with properties suitable for the existence of life and the correct position around stars.

“Neighboring alien planets may be in“ early Earth ”life stage. – Carl Sagan Institute

However, for the carbon-rich planet that is the focus of this study, it is likely that life will not have the necessary properties. Although the Earth is geologically active (an indicator of habitability), the results of this study show that carbon-rich planets are very difficult to be geologically active, and atmospheric formation can render humans uninhabited if they lack geological activity. . The atmosphere is important to life because it gives us air to breathe, protects from the harsh space environment, and even the pressure that allows liquid water.

“It’s an additional step that helps us understand and characterize the ever-increasing number of extraterrestrial planet observations, regardless of their habitability,” says Allen Sutter. “The more we learn, the better we can interpret new data from future missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope and the Roman Nancy Grace Space Telescope to understand the world outside our solar system.”

Daily Galaxy, Sam Cabot, via Arizona State University

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