Astronomers have increased the chances of the existence of earth-like planets three times

The chances that Earth-like exoplanets orbiting the stars of our Milky Way galaxy have a set of Earth-like minerals are much higher than previously thought. In addition, the conditions for creating the basic “bricks” from which earth-like planets are built are found in star systems extremely often. This conclusion was made by astronomers from the University of Hull , which they were quick to share at the meeting of the Royal Astronomical Community.



The minerals that arise from individual elements, such as carbon, oxygen, magnesium and silicon, determine the appearance of the rocky planets. A slight difference in the proportions of these “building materials” leads to serious differences in the tectonic structure of the planets, their temperature regime and other characteristics that affect whether these planets can serve as the basis for the development of life.

')

Until now, it was believed that rocky planets are of three types: planets similar to Earth, planets with a high concentration of carbon and planets in which the concentration of silicon exceeds the concentration of magnesium.



"The ratio of the elements making up the Earth has led to chemical characteristics that are just suitable for life," explains Professor Brad Gibson. He and his colleagues built a complex computer simulation of the formation of the Milky Way, which included the formation of planetary systems.



At first, they were very surprised that their model predicted the current state of the galaxy extremely precisely, and so agrees well with modern observations. "Everything was in its place: the number of emerging and dying stars, individual elements and isotopes." Then they noticed that the model predicted in relation to the formation of planets. It turned out that not in one of the three, but literally in each solar system, the elementary "building blocks" of the planets coincided with those of which our Earth was obtained.



Thanks to the constructed model, scientists were able to detect errors and inaccuracies in the observations that led to the wrong conclusion. Having corrected these errors, they were able to align the results of observations and predictions of the model.



In the clouds from which solar systems are formed, oxygen atoms are about twice as large as carbon atoms, and for every five silicon atoms there are six magnesium atoms. The astronomers who conducted the observations usually considered systems with bright stars and giant planets, which led to errors in the estimates of the number of elements up to 20%. In addition, with the old methods of observation, it was difficult to separate the spectra of oxygen and nickel.



“Even with the right building blocks, not every planet will turn out to be similar to the Earth - for the existence of life there must be conditions for the presence of liquid water,” says Gibson. - It is worth looking at Mars and Venus to see what the different conditions may be. But the presence of these blocks increases the chances of the existence of earth-like planets - three times compared with previous estimates. "