![Neptunes gas](https://loka.nahovitsyn.com/117.jpg)
![neptunes gas neptunes gas](https://3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net/newman/csz/news/800/2015/3-thegasandice.jpg)
Sometimes they’re used interchangeably, depending on the context. One way of looking at these names is that mini-Neptunes are just planets on the upper end of the size scale for super-Earths.īoth these terms became common as we found more and more exoplanets. Aldaron – Own work, incorporating public domain images for reference planets (see below), inspired by Thingg’s size comparison, CC BY-SA 3.0, This illustration compares Earth and Neptune to the super-Earth CoRoT-7b (center.) Image Credit: By Aldaron, a.k.a. The term “super-Earth” does not indicate a planet’s potential habitability, only of its size. Super-Earths have radii as large as 1.6 times Earth’s radius. Super-Earths are terrestrial planets larger than Earth but smaller than our Solar System’s ice giants, Uranus and Neptune. Mini Neptunian planets range in size from about 1.5 to 4 times the size of Earth and have a rocky core and puffy gaseous shell of varying thickness. Mini-Neptunes are also called gas dwarfs.
![neptunes gas neptunes gas](https://worldoil.com/media/10382/duva-field-photo-neptune-energy.jpg)
They have rocky cores and are between 1.7 and 3.9 Earth radii.
![neptunes gas neptunes gas](https://img-aws.ehowcdn.com/877x500p/s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/contentlab.studiod/getty/cf0ffa37c3004b5b8e850c882d4d6d20.jpg)
There are probably deeper layers of ice, rock, maybe even liquid oceans. Like Neptune, they have thick atmospheres of hydrogen and helium. Mini-Neptunes are planets like Neptune but less massive. The observations suggest that the planets are slowly transitioning into super-Earths. Radiation from their stars strips away their atmospheres and drives the gases into space. They found that both of these mini-Neptunes are undergoing similar transformations. The researchers used the Hubble Space Telescope and the W.M. Michael Zhang is the lead author of both papers: “ Detection of Ongoing Mass Loss from HD 63433c, a Young Mini-Neptune,” and “ Escaping Helium from TOI 560.01, a Young Mini-Neptune.” Both papers are in The Astronomical Journal. Each one is the subject of separate papers involving some of the same authors. The two mini-Neptunes are HD 63433c and TOI 560.01. The discovery not only provides examples of a phenomenon that scientists have theorized about, but it might also help explain the gap in the sizes of exoplanets we find. Two new studies examine a pair of mini-Neptunes that are losing their atmospheres.
![Neptunes gas](https://loka.nahovitsyn.com/117.jpg)