Astronomers of the Noirlab Research Center and the University of California (USA) found out that most stony planets rotating around the nearest stars are more diverse and exotic than previously thought. They contain unique types of alien rocks that have no analogues in the solar system. This is reported in an article published in the Nature Communications magazine.
Researchers studied the atmosphere of contaminated white dwarfs – compressed nuclei of ordinary stars, which contain foreign material remaining from exoplanets, asteroids and other space objects. The remnants of the planets can be detected by chemical elements that cannot occur in the white dwarf itself. Scientists analyzed 23 contaminated white dwarfs located within 650 light years from the Sun, measuring the content of calcium, silicon, magnesium and iron.
In the quantitative ratio of chemical elements, it was possible to reconstruct minerals and rock rocks that were evolved. It turned out that white dwarfs have a much wider range of compounds than any of the inner planets in the solar system. This indicates that their planets had a wider range of rock types. Some of them, scientists have come up with new names, for example, “quartz pyroxenites” and “periclase dunits.”
According to scientists, alien rocks can dissolve more water than rocks on Earth, which affects the development of oceans. Other breeds can melt at much lower temperatures and form a thicker bark than the Earth’s breeds, and some types of rocks may be more weak, which can contribute to a more developed tact plateonics