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Munazza K. Alam

Astronomer

May 16, 2026

13:54
Oh.
13:54
And so we call those smaller planets, that peak in the, the smaller planets, super-Earths because we think that these planets are rocky based on measurements of their mass and their radius.
14:04
And then there are sub-Neptunes, um, which are the, the second peak of the slightly bigger, puffier planets which, um, we think have some sort of thick atmosphere, whether that atmosphere is made of volatiles, things that, um, it's kind-- that have, uh, [lips smack] uh, lower temperatures before they turn to gas.
14:26
Um, or, uh, whether it's, you know, something else, we're not sure.
14:30
But we, we know that the, those planets definitively have thick atmospheres.
14:34
And, um, if you measure their, if you plot their mass and radius, uh, measurements on a mass radius diagram, which can tell you kind of, you can overplot curves of the density, um, to understand the composition of these planets, there's a lot of degeneracies there where you could have some mixture of, um, water or carbon dioxide that can explain a g- for a, a planet's composition for a given mass and radius.

25 MINS LATER

39:50
So they're heading in front of-- They're passing in front of their star sometimes.
39:53
Exactly.

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