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I'm currently studying the following diagram:

Mass-Radius Diagram

But I'm not entirely sure I understand what's going on. Is it just, that most exoplanets discovered, is pretty much made up of Hydrogen and Helium ? And then a couple (Like around (1,1)) have the composition like the earth i.e. iron and such.

Basically: The place the planet is located, does that just tell me what most of the planet is made of?

And what is the difference between exoplanets and solar system planets? I thought exoplanets was planets orbiting a star. But maybe the solar system planets are planets within a system of many planets orbiting a sun, and exoplanet only one planet around one star?

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  • $\begingroup$ Exoplanet means those planets that arent in our solar system, and solar system planets are in our solar system . the two (blue)triangles must be earth and mars i suppose and purple points are exoplanets and yes most of the exoplanets are made of Hydrogen and helium and revolve around other stars $\endgroup$
    – Gowtham
    Commented Dec 26, 2014 at 16:56
  • $\begingroup$ Ah, that makes perfect sense now. Don't know why I didn't think of that. Thank you :) Make an answer, and I will accept it if you want. $\endgroup$
    – Denver Dang
    Commented Dec 26, 2014 at 17:06
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    $\begingroup$ That diagram is from a paper that is seven years old. You might be interested in playing around with exoplanets.org, where you can make more up-to-date plots like this. $\endgroup$
    – user10851
    Commented Dec 26, 2014 at 19:57

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Exoplanet means those planets that arent in our solar system, and solar system planets are in our solar system . The two (blue)triangles must be earth and mars i suppose and purple points are exoplanets and yes most of the exoplanets are made of Hydrogen and helium and revolve around other stars from the graph given .

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