Currently, there is a exoworlds naming project; every country in the world has been assigned a pair of exoworlds, a planet and a star by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to run a naming competition. Let's briefly explain what are the exoworlds, and generally discuss, what stars and planets are made up of.
What are stars made up of?
Stars are made up of very hot gas, mostly composed of the two lightest elements, hydrogen and helium. They produce light by burning hydrogen into helium in their cores, whereof at the later stages of their lives, they create heavier elements. Most stars have small proportions of heavier elements (more likely, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and iron). Stars cease to exist by running out of fuel and ejecting most of their materials back into space. The materials ejected into space are then used to form new stars. As a result, materials in stars are reused/recycled for new star formation. Even the small amount of heavier elements we see in the living stars was created by stars that existed before them.
What are planets made up of?
Planets that are part of the solar system are made up of varying materials. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, here namely, the inner planets, are small and rocky, made up of mostly silicate minerals, iron, and nickel. The Earth's composition is largely iron, silicon, and oxygen.
What is the exoplanet?
Exoplanets are planets found beyond the solar system. Scientists believe that most of the exoplanets are composed of elements similar to those found on Earth. But, astronomers suggest that there may be many planets made mainly of diamond or graphite. A recent statistical estimate, on average, places at least one planet (many of them being in the range of Earth's size) around every star in the Milky Way (our galaxy) Galaxy, making roughly an order of trillion planets in our Galaxy alone. Each planet, therefore, has its parent star, and as the planet transits across the face of its star, light from it shines through the planet. This light is scientifically important in studying many phenomena tied to the exoworlds and their planetary systems.
-
- Active Topics
-
-
- by Eli 21 hours ago Re: What is in Your Mind? View the latest post Replies 703 Views 299968
- by Eli 21 hours ago Russia Invades Ukraine View the latest post Replies 663 Views 235144
- by Eli 2 days ago All in One: YouTube, TED, X, Facebook and Instagram Reels, Videos, Images and Text Posts View the latest post Replies 326 Views 34165
- by Eli 3 days ago PySpark for Large Data Processing View the latest post Replies 1 Views 6864
- by Eli 1 week ago President Museveni's Speech During International Development Association (IDA) Summit View the latest post Replies 1 Views 280
- by Eli 1 week ago From Simple Linear Regression Analysis to Covariance & Correlation to Independent Determinant, and R-Squared View the latest post Replies 11 Views 24839
- by Eli 1 week ago Collection of Greatest Christian Hymns of all Times View the latest post Replies 34 Views 67350
- by Eli 1 week ago Pondering Big Cosmology Questions Through Lectures and Dialogues View the latest post Replies 34 Views 58079
- by Eli 1 week ago Programmatically Manipulate Files: Renaming, Reading, Writing, Deleting, and Moving Files Between Folders View the latest post Replies 7 Views 15750
- by Eli 2 weeks ago Iran Launches Retaliatory Attack Against Israel, and Israel Retaliates by Attacking Iranian Isfahan Millitary Base View the latest post Replies 28 Views 17766
-
The Newly Discovered ExoWorlds: what are they?
-
- Information
-
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests