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Sapphires and rubies in the sky

Researchers have discovered a new, exotic class of planets outside our solar system. These so-called super-Earths were formed at high temperatures close to their host star and contain high quantities of calcium, aluminium and their oxides, including sapphire and ruby.



21 light years away from us in the constellation Cassiopeia, a planet orbits its star with a year that is just three days long. Its name is HD219134 b. With a mass almost five times that of Earth it is a so-called "super-Earth." Unlike the Earth however, it most likely does not have a massive core of iron, but is rich in calcium and aluminium. HD219134 b is one of three candidates likely to belong to a new, exotic class of exoplanets.


The researchers study the formation of planets using theoretical models and compare their results with data from observations. It is known that during their formation, stars such as the Sun were surrounded by a disc of gas and dust in which planets were born. Rocky planets like the Earth were formed out of the solid bodies leftover when the proto-planetary gas disc dispersed. These building blocks condensed out of the nebula gas as the disc cooled.


With their models, the research team calculated what a planet being formed in such a hot region should look like. Their result: calcium and aluminium are the main constituents alongside magnesium and silicon, and there is hardly any iron.



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