Glass Planets: Common and Detectable in Our Galactic Neighborhood?

[Loren Booda]

I have heard of terrestrial, gas giant, liquid and (speculatively) crystal planets. It seems to me that the conditions for forming a glass planet would be relatively common (more than those for their crystal cousins) - enough so that such bodies might eventually be detectable in our galactic neighborhood.

Is it reasonable to expect a planet of glass in some solar systems?

 

[franznietzsche]

I would say not. Silica is a fairly complicated compound, and does not make up nearly as large a portion of the Earth's mass as iron does. With just our local solar system to go by in terms of the composition of dust disks around stars, I would guess that it is incredibly unlikely that entire planet would form out of just silica, much less glass.