Lonely planets

[bojan]

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/18may_orphanplanets/

[Brian W]

Hi Bojan, it is an interesting article. Sure will change some theories if there are as many of these planets(?) or small almost brown dwarf failed suns floating around the cosmos as the scientists indicate there might be.

Brian

[renormalised]

Yes, interesting article. It's in the news on several science websites. Would be very interesting to go visit one of these planets.

[bojan]

Not easy to find them.... Some of them will be very cold (and therefore quite invisible).

[renormalised]

Quite true, they'd be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

[CraigS]

Seems like they picked up a lot more 'events', too …


.. they seem to have covered the 'false positive' aspects fairly well …


Seems they are saying both ejection and protoplanetary disk formation, are still contenders, and cannot be ruled out by these observations …

Makes you wonder how much of a role the complexity of the n-body problem plays in the establishment, (or otherwise), of stable 'solar' systems.

Cheers