The Galaxy May Swarm With Billions Of Wandering Planets

The Galaxy May Swarm With Billions Of Wandering Planets

science.nasa.gov

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have spotted something extraordinary. Apparently there are planet-sized objects wandering through a distant globular cluster of stars. Unlike the planets in our own solar system, however, these objects are loners -- they have no central star of their own

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is very interesting news! Although it will no doubt encourage more planet x 2012 doom gloom hysteria....however I suppose it makes the possibility of a moving planet X more likely....check it out and see what you think!! Alot of new discoverys these past few days happening quickly.

Enjoy

Elvis


science.nasa.gov
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Elvis_Is_Dead


Thanks Elvis star and flag for you sir.

The idea of an object that size just floating about seems counter intuitive, but I guess stranger things have happened in the cosmos. After all that gravity is one of the most mysterious of the forces!

reply to post by Elvis_Is_Dead


I read about this earlier, it confirms that science is still learning about the universe and how it was 'created' or came to be.....recent scientific finds are really pushing the envelope of past stronghold beliefs, one giant step for man one giant leap for mankind, these finding are great!

Maybe this is a way of gently easing us closer to the real deal Holyfield.

18May2011 Loner planets discovered floating through galaxy

23Aug2011 Wandering planets closer to our solar system than previously thought

13Jan2012 Scientists excited about new 'comet' in our solar system

21Dec2012 Planet X is here to eat you.

I like the story and I'd never heard it but it's from June 29, 2001

I think I get it now here is the recent update with new findings that relates to this older Hubble release:
Ny Times

reply to post by iforget


it is an old article but NASA is talking about it now also with renewed views that these 'wandering planets' could be more common than stars.

science.nasa.gov...

This could be just the tip of the iceberg. The team estimates there are about twice as many free-floating Jupiter-mass planets as stars. In addition, these worlds are thought to be at least as common as planets that orbit stars. This adds up to hundreds of billions of lone planets in our Milky Way galaxy alone.

it is likely that some planets are ejected from their early, turbulent solar systems, due to close gravitational encounters with other planets or stars. Without a star to circle, these planets would move through the galaxy as our sun and others stars do, in stable orbits around the galaxy's center. The discovery of 10 free-floating Jupiters supports the ejection scenario, though it's possible both mechanisms are at play.

These things are notoriously hard to see, and we can't detect them from the wobble of a star like we can orbiting planets.

If there are enough of these things, it could go a long way toward explaining "dark matter", at least within a galaxy.

Still not in any of these threads about this same topic has there been a link to the article in Nature journal from May 19th that sites a confirmed discovery. No Nature link, no confirmed reference, it didn't happen, its speculation!!!

Originally posted by Illustronic
Still not in any of these threads about this same topic has there been a link to the article in Nature journal from May 19th that sites a confirmed discovery. No Nature link, no confirmed reference, it didn't happen, its speculation!!!

Usually I find your posts intelligent and a delight to read, but this is a rare exception.

What are you talking about and where did you get May 19th from?

As far as I can tell, while the NASA article doesn't give the title of the paper, it would appear to be this paper of June 28, 2001, not May 19th of some unspecified year:

Gravitational microlensing by low-mass objects in the globular cluster M22

Here we report a microlensing event associated with the globular cluster M22. We determine the mass of the lens to be 0.13+0.03-0.02 solar masses. We have also detected six events that are unresolved in time. If these are also microlensing events, they imply that a non-negligible fraction of the cluster mass resides in the form of free-floating planetary-mass objects.

Regarding speculation, the abstract does say "If these are also microlensing events" which implies by use of the word "if" that they aren't completely sure, so that could be called somewhat, though perhaps not completely speculative.

And besides, if the nature link is given, who is really going to pay the $32 to buy the article? Not me, especially when NASA pretty much tells me what it says in English is their interpretation of the paper.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Its to be released tomorrow from what I gathered. I find it highly speculative when a 10 astronomical unit from a star was mentioned. I suppose I'll have to wait to read the entire article instead of a paragraph synopsis.

It would appear that we have several threads on this topic today. Please carry on the discussion here. Thank you.

Thread Closed.