Model accounts for scarcity of planets with masses between super-Earths and mini-Neptunes. Computer simulations by Rice University scientists and their collaborators are the first to integrate a model of planet formation and evolution that explains two puzzling observations of exoplanets orbiting distant stars: the rarity of worlds about 1.8 times larger than Earth and the near-identical size of adjacent planets in hundreds of planetary systems.
A new model that accounts for the interplay of forces acting on newborn planets can explain two puzzling observations that have cropped up repeatedly among the more than 3,800 planetary systems catalog...
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