Sentences with phrase «rocky planets once»

That suggests the rocky planets once had atmospheres, and lost them.

Not exact matches

In the study, a research team found that the Almahata Sitta meteorite once belonged to a protoplanet, one of tens of early worlds that experienced impacts and buildups to ultimately create the rocky planets in our solar system.

Having the mass and radii of a planet allows the astronomers to calculate other features such as a planet's average density, «and once you know the average density of a planet, then you can start to say whether it's rocky or not,» Kane explained.

Surprising findings from some of the oldest known meteorites suggest that our solar system was once chock - full of miniature planets, complete with metallic cores and rocky crusts.

FIRST DRAFT The solar system may have once hosted several large rocky planets close to the sun, like Kepler 11 (illustrated) does, before Jupiter swept them away.

Six billion years from now, alien astronomers studying the rocky remains around our burned out sun might reach the same conclusion: terrestrial planets once circled our parent star.

Astronomers have even used the blended debris surrounding white dwarfs to decipher whether any rocky planets were once in orbit.