Carbon rich planets may not sustain life: NASA
1 Nov 2013 4:34 AM IST
Planets rich in carbon, including so-called diamond planets, may lack oceans, according to a NASA study.
Our Sun is a carbon-poor star, and as result, our planet Earth is made up largely of silicates, not carbon. Stars with much more carbon than the Sun, on the other hand, are predicted to make planets chock full of carbon, and perhaps even layers of diamond.
By modelling the ingredients in these carbon-based planetary systems, the scientists determined they lack icy water reservoirs thought to supply planets with oceans.
‘The building blocks that went into making our oceans are the icy asteroids and comets,’ said Torrence Johnson of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who presented the results at the American Astronomical Society Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in Denver.
‘If we keep track of these building blocks, we find that planets around carbon-rich stars come up dry,’ he said.
Johnson and his colleagues said the extra carbon in developing star systems would snag the oxygen, preventing it from forming water.
‘It’s ironic that if carbon, the main element of life, becomes too abundant, it will steal away the oxygen that would have made water, the solvent essential to life as we know it,’ said Jonathan Lunine of Cornell University, Ithaca, a collaborator on the research. Researchers identify exoplanets by first looking for those that are situated within the ‘habitable zone’ around their parent stars, which is where temperatures are warm enough for water to pool on the surface.
Our Sun is a carbon-poor star, and as result, our planet Earth is made up largely of silicates, not carbon. Stars with much more carbon than the Sun, on the other hand, are predicted to make planets chock full of carbon, and perhaps even layers of diamond.
By modelling the ingredients in these carbon-based planetary systems, the scientists determined they lack icy water reservoirs thought to supply planets with oceans.
‘The building blocks that went into making our oceans are the icy asteroids and comets,’ said Torrence Johnson of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who presented the results at the American Astronomical Society Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in Denver.
‘If we keep track of these building blocks, we find that planets around carbon-rich stars come up dry,’ he said.
Johnson and his colleagues said the extra carbon in developing star systems would snag the oxygen, preventing it from forming water.
‘It’s ironic that if carbon, the main element of life, becomes too abundant, it will steal away the oxygen that would have made water, the solvent essential to life as we know it,’ said Jonathan Lunine of Cornell University, Ithaca, a collaborator on the research. Researchers identify exoplanets by first looking for those that are situated within the ‘habitable zone’ around their parent stars, which is where temperatures are warm enough for water to pool on the surface.
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