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Connecting a star’s chemical composition and planet formation

Along with developing a new statistical method for studying exoplanets, researchers from Penn found that the majority of stars in their dataset are similar to the sun, implying that many stars in the Milky Way could host their own Earthlike planets.
a start in the center of a dark sky surrounded by orbiting planets and a ring of dust
An artist’s concept of a young star circled by planets and rings of dust that arise when newly formed, rocky planets collide with one another. A new study presented at the 238th American Astronomical Society conference describes a new method for quantifying the relationship between a star’s chemical composition and planet formation, work that could help researchers identify individual stars that have a higher likelihood of hosting planets. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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    Charles Kane

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    (Image: Brooke Sietinsons)

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