Planets May Affect the Chemistry of Their Stars

Planets are, by and large, at the mercy of their stars. Not only do stars provide a ready energy source of radiated light and heat, but the mass and gravitational pull of stars flat-out dwarfs the summed masses and pulls of any orbiting companions. In our solar system, which has more planets--regardless of where one stands on the Pluto debate--than any other planetary system we know of so far, the sun still makes up more than 99.8 percent of its system's mass. [More]

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