Mini-Neptune Exoplanets May be Much Smaller

[bison]

Some exoplanets though to be midway in size between Earth and Neptune may, in fact, be much closer to the size of Earth, some scientists believe. A number of these Mini-Neptune planets have been detected in orbit of other stars.

If some of these planets happen to have rings of debris, like Saturn, the rings could have been mistaken for parts of the planet. Such rings could be made up of destroyed moons, or material that never coalesced into moons, due to the planet's gravity.

  The current generation of telescopes may be just a little short of the ability to readily resolve these rings. The new telescopes on the way will do better at this task.  There may be more Earth-like planets than we realize.

Please find a link, below, to an article with more information:

https://www.space.com/40650-astronomers-may-miss-rocky-planet-rings.html

Edited May 22, 2018 by bison
corrected link address