What is a Super-Earth?
A Super-Earth is a type of extrasolar planet (exoplanet) more massive than the Earth but less massive than a gas giant like Jupiter or Saturn. The concept is relatively new (2003). Scientific papers variously define a Super-Earth as a planet between one and ten Earth masses, or as a planet between 5 and 10 Earth masses. It could be a while before a standard definition emerges, if one does at all. Super-Earths are of interest to astronomers because they are a category of planets that does not exist in our own solar system and thus have an aura of mystery about them. Most extrasolar planets discovered thus far are either Super-Earths or gas giants. This is because our detection technology is not yet sensitive enough to find exoplanets with a mass similar to Earth or less. The first Super-Earths discovered were PSR 1257+12 b and PSR 1257+12 c, planets with masses approximately 4 times greater than the Earth, orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12 located 980 light-years from the Sun. Though firs
For many years, the only planets astronomers could find outside of our solar system were huge, gaseous entities, such as our own Jupiter. Advances in observation technology, though, have allowed scientists to discover a smaller type of planet they’ve dubbed a super-Earth. Scientists generally define a super-Earth as a planet that is up to about 10 times the mass of Earth. According to Steve Edberg, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, planets any larger than that tend to be gaseous, like Uranus and Neptune (Rodriguez). It’s important to understand that the term super-Earth technically refers only to the mass of the planet, and not its temperature, climate, or environment; however, super-Earths are of interest to scientists because the smaller planets tend to have surfaces which would be more likely to support life as we know it, such as with liquid oceans and rocky terrain.
