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Planetary science

Early start for rocky planets

Nature volume 486, pages 331–332 (2012)Cite this article

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The chemical composition of stars that host small planets seems to be more varied than that of large planets. This finding may push back the clock for the start of rocky planets and of life around stars other than the Sun. See Letter p.375

On page 375 of this issue, Buchhave et al.1 describe a spectroscopic analysis of the chemical composition of stars hosting planet candidates that have been detected by NASA's Kepler mission. The authors have focused on 152 stars harbouring planet candidates that are a similar size to Neptune or smaller. The key result of this work is that small planets — those with a radius up to four times that of Earth — form under a broader range of environmental conditions than do gas-giant planets. This is an important finding, as it shows that the formation of small planets is a less constrained process than is the formation of large planets. It also implies that small, rocky planets formed at an earlier epoch in the Universe's history than gas giants.

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  1. Debra Fischer is in the Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA.,

    Debra Fischer

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Correspondence to Debra Fischer.

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Fischer, D. Early start for rocky planets. Nature 486, 331–332 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11199

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