0
$\begingroup$

Alright, so the primary inspiration for this is 55 Cancri e, the speculated carbon "diamond world" and to a degree, Nkllon, a planet in Star Wars that is essentially what Cancri is, but "confirmed" to be a crystal mineral-rich planet in-world. I gave Nkllon as an example because it bears many similarities with Cancri as both are uninhabitable carbon-based planets extremely close to their parent star, making it very, very inaccessible. To reach Nkllon, the use of shield ships were employed, which were umbrella-like vessels that could resist the extreme rays and heat.

Now, I don't want to rip off Star Wars (even though the planet bears many is "essentially" Cancri e. So to mediate this, I was thinking about making the star a white dwarf rather than basing it off the star similar to our own. White dwarfs are formed by stars less than a quarter mass of our sun, so they immediately shrink without undergoing the process of becoming red giants, expanding and consuming the planet (since they're at such a close range) in the process before finally becoming a dwarves. The problem with this is that I don't know if a star the quarter mass of ours is even capable of providing the correct conditions to go about producing such rare materials in its system.

If that's the case, and a white dwarf is truly incapable of allowing such, could any other astronomical body while in conjunction with the white dwarf allow this planet to form?

$\endgroup$
3
  • $\begingroup$ en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSR_B1257%2B12 This is a solution to your planet formation issue. Just make the colliding White Dwarfs carbon rich and there you go. I even heard that these might be carbon planets. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 20, 2019 at 13:42
  • $\begingroup$ Additionally the Rouche Limit and tidal heating are a concern. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 20, 2019 at 13:44
  • $\begingroup$ I'm not sure you've got your stellar classifications quite right... a star with .25 solar masses is a red dwarf, which is theorised to evolve into a blue dwarf after a trillion years or more (eg, longer than the age of the universe). White dwarfs are formed by any star capable of fusing hydrogen that started out under 8-10 solar masses. Hard to write a good answer without more information on what you mean! $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 22, 2019 at 19:32

1 Answer 1

1
$\begingroup$

The star of the solar system plays no significant role in the composition of the planets. The composition is more about the place of the solar system in a galaxy. This is because of galaxies spinning. The heavier particles tend to be closer to the centre of galaxy.

The orbited object needs to be a lot heavier. The stars are much heavier than the planets, so the size probably does not matter much for the orbiting.

$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ "The star . . . plays no significant role in the composition of the planets" - since the star and the planets formed from the same collapsing gas cloud, there should definitely be a connection between the composition of the star and the planets. (Though in the case of stellar remnants this link would likely be indirect or nonexistent, as the remnant forms long after the planets.) $\endgroup$
    – HDE 226868
    Commented Mar 16, 2020 at 18:30

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .