Definition
In general, the super-Earths are defined as exclusively by their mass, and the term does not imply temperatures, compositions, orbital properties, adaptability, or environments similar to that of Earth. A variety of specific mass values are cited in definitions of super-Earths. While sources generally agree on an upper bound of 10 Earth masses, (~69% of the mass of Uranus, which is the Solar System gas giant with the least mass), the lower bound varies from 1 or 1.9 to 5, with various other definitions appearing in the popular media. Some authors further suggest that the term be limited to planets without a significant atmosphere, or planets that have not just atmospheres but also solid surfaces or oceans with a sharp boundary between liquid and atmosphere, which the four giant planets in our solar system do not have. Planets above 10 Earth masses are termed giant planets. By informal convention, giant planets may be subdivided into "super-Jupiters" (more than 2-3 Jupiter masses up to brown dwarf mass), "Jupiters" (like Jupiter and Saturn, greater than 30 Earth masses), and "Neptunes" (of a mass similar to Uranus and Neptune, of 10-30 Earth masses).
Read more about this topic: Super-Earth
Famous quotes containing the word definition:
“It is very hard to give a just definition of love. The most we can say of it is this: that in the soul, it is a desire to rule; in the spirit, it is a sympathy; and in the body, it is but a hidden and subtle desire to possess—after many mysteries—what one loves.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“The very definition of the real becomes: that of which it is possible to give an equivalent reproduction.... The real is not only what can be reproduced, but that which is always already reproduced. The hyperreal.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“Beauty, like all other qualities presented to human experience, is relative; and the definition of it becomes unmeaning and useless in proportion to its abstractness. To define beauty not in the most abstract, but in the most concrete terms possible, not to find a universal formula for it, but the formula which expresses most adequately this or that special manifestation of it, is the aim of the true student of aesthetics.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)