Super-Earths may come in two flavors

Some of the exoplanets appear to be denser than others

Now that known exoplanets have become almost as numerous as fireflies on a midsummer’s eve, two top planet-finding missions are starting to disagree over the abundance of low-mass planets that are heavier than Earth but smaller than Neptune.

Planets with masses that fall between Earth’s and Neptune’s, as shown in the illustration above, might be common around distant stars and are targets for scientists searching for Earthlike worlds.