Inaccuracies in exoplanet information

[versed vector]

Dear devs. I recently resumed my game, and how thrilled I was to see the new update with exoplanets in "Beyond". The reason? I am a professor of planetary science, and I do theoretical modelling of exoplanets.

I don't have a bug to report "per se", but I couldn't help but notice some very bold statements in the descriptions of exoplanets. For now, I found:

• Formalhaut's Ring Rank 3 achievement: the rings of TW Hydrae are not shaped by planetesimals. Planetesimals are objects of 1 meter and bigger, but our best telescopes (ALMA) can only see things at most of 1 milimeter. It will take several new generations of telescope before we can see the smallest planetesimal. The rings are shaped by dust (from micron-sized to mm-size particles), which has been observed by ALMA. There is evidence of a forming planet (protoplanet), but that is not yet confirmed.
• Awohali Rank 3 achievement: the detection of DMS (dimethyl sulfide) is not confirmed at all. There is just one person in the entire community making that claim, and that single person also made a lot of effort to spread that (fake) information to the general audience, but not only this detection is not significant, there are multiple rebuttal papers demonstrating that there is no detection of DMS on K2-18b.
• Awohali descriptions: when an exoplanet experiences atmospheric loss, it creates a leading or trailing tail of dust and gas (depending if the lost mass goes towards the star or from the star). This tail has the shape of a spiral arm, it does not have the shape of the coma from a comet. That said, the shape of the tail and the coma are due to the same proess, so I give you that.
• to be continued.

[versed vector]

• Janssen's description: there are no mistakes, but I wanted to add a correction. The absolute density is indeed greater than Earth, but that density is actually lower than what is expected for an Earth-like planet. The density on 55 Cnc e is 6.6 gcc. However, if you take Earth, multiply it's mass by 8 (the most accurate mass measurement of 55 Cnc e, from 2018), then theoretical models predict that such planet will have a density of 8 gcc. This is because more massive planets become denser because of their own gravity, even when composition is the same. This means that, if anything, 55 Cnc e must have an atmosphere to explain its low density.
• Enaiposha (GJ 1214b) cannot be a water world because it is too big in size. If GJ 1214b was a water world, it would need to be a 100% sphere of water, which is impossible. This means that there must be H2-He gas (which is lighter) to explain why this planet is so big. The whole reason people observe GJ 1214b is because there is more evidence against it being a water world. I personally published a paper mentioning GJ 1214b.

I think it would be a great to revise descriptions a bit in the spirit of peer-review ;-)
Don't get me wrong, this is not a critic, and I am not here to push my personal opinion or my own expertise/beliefs into your game. I am providing you feedback based on what is agreed upon in the community, and what I am saying is not something that can change suddenly with new models/interpretation.
Happy to stay in touch!

[mellow folio]

Okay, thanks for your feedback