Super-Earths give theorists a super headache

[blane]

Just stumbled over this, from nature:

But what has puzzled observers and theorists so far is the high proportion of planets — roughly one-third to one-half — that are bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune. These ‘super-Earths’ are emerging as a new category of planet — and they could be the most numerous of all (see ‘Super-Earths rising’). 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.

http://www.nature.com/news/super-earths-give-theorists-a-super-headache-1.9636

 

[communist]

this makes me laugh for some reason

 

[RisingFury]

I'm not sure we have the right to be surprised. Until the 1990's, we only knew our own solar system and a lot of people assumed that other solar systems would be roughly the same: Small terrestrial planets close to the parent star, large gas planets far away. When the search for other planets was still young, we detected a lot of large planets close to their parent star.

If anyone is surprised by this, it's 'cos their ego is too damn big. The universe is not here for us.

We also have to take into account that large rocky planets are the ones that can accumulate gas to turn into gas giants, so why be surprised by finding planets that failed to accumulate that gas?

 

[MattBaker]

So, if I understand right their problem is that most of the planets are bigger than Earth?
Isn't this just because we're not able (until now) to find a mercury-like planet thousands of light years away from us, so a technological thing?

edit: Ah get it, their problem is that there are planets that are in a size we've never seen before. Well, if I have seen 9 whales and the next whale I spot is a white one I would be surprised, but actually it's just because I have a lack of knowledge in whales.

 

[blane]

Indeed, I think this may be part of the problem: Our technology may just not be capable of detecting planets that are the size of earth or even smaller; or only in ideal circumstances.

 

[Donamy]

Anyone remember the TV show, The Land of the Giants ? :hmm:

 

[RisingFury]

Indeed, I think this may be part of the problem: Our technology may just not be capable of detecting planets that are the size of earth or even smaller; or only in ideal circumstances.

No, that's not the problem.

It's true that we have a hard time detecting Earth sized and Earth mass planets, but we know that. The theorists take that into account. The "surprise" here is that we're seeing lots of planets larger then Earth but not large enough to be gas giants. We have no such planets in our solar system, so nothing to compare to.