This is thought to provide evidence for one of the primary competing theories for how planets form, which proposes that gas giant planets are built from the slow accretion of disk material until a core about 10 times Earth’s mass is formed. “Understanding the relationship between the chemical composition of a star and its planets could help shed light on the planetary formation process,” explained first author Johanna Teske of the Carnegie Institution for Science.įor example, previous research indicated that the occurrence of gas giant planets increases around stars with a higher concentration of heavy elements, those elements other than hydrogen and helium. Astronomers have long wondered how much a star’s makeup determines the raw material from which planets are constructed-a question that is easier to probe now that we know the galaxy is teeming with exoplanets.
In their youths, stars are surrounded by a rotating disk of gas and dust from which planets are born. The new findings, published in the Astronomical Journal, have important implications for understanding the planetary formation process.
A surprising analysis of the compositions of gas giant exoplanets and their host stars shows that there isn’t a strong correlation between their compositions when it comes to elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.