Ryan Rygg News Today

Date Time Lab team uses giant lasers to compress iron oxide, revealing secret interior of rocky exoplanets An artistic rendering of the interior structure of Earth (left) compared to a large rocky exoplanet (right). Credit: John Jett and Federica Coppari/LLNL. Advances in astronomical observations have resulted in the discovery of an extraordinary number of extrasolar planets, some of which are believed to have a rocky composition similar to Earth. Learning more about their interior structure c...

Researchers have created the first model of carbon structures that may make up planets outside the solar system by measuring carbon at the highest pressures ever achieved in a laboratory. Carbon is one of the most prevalent elements in existence. As the fourth most abundant element in the universe, it’s a building block for all known life and forms the interior of carbon-rich exoplanets. “This is the highest pressure any atomic structure has been measured…” Decades of research has shown...