STRAY PLANETS
(Continued from yesterday)
Astronomers at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands announced early this year about their new study suggesting there are some 50 billion free floating planets in our Milky Way galaxy. It is calculated that about quarter of Milky Way stars have lost one or more planets. These planets are free floating in our galaxy. A few decades ago no one thought about these rogue bodies. Now millions of galaxies put together the numbers of these are mind blowing. Collisions among planets and their host star are common. This happens in more than three per cent of planetary systems. Scientists think that our own solar system might have lost one or two planets, probably less massive than Neptune, earlier in its youth. The ejection of planets from their home planetary systems might be more common in denser star clusters ( The Trapezium star cluster is considered a 'looser' cluster), since more frequent encounters between stars in dense clusters will make the planetary systems unstable. But the study of the Trapezium cluster shows that planets leave their home systems in loose clusters as well.
The existence of 200 billion stars in our galaxy, and an even greater number of planets, is difficult enough to wrap our minds around. The idea of anothe 50 billion planets just floating around, not bound to any stars, is even more incredible. It must sound like science fiction, but, if astronomers at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands are right, these 50 billion rogue planets do exist. Rogue planets are not easy to detect, but as astronomers learn more about them, they will be able to find more in the coming years. If this new study is any indication, there are many of them awaiting discovery.
(Concluded)
(Indebted to EarthSky, article by Paul Scott Anderson in Space)
KV George
kvgeorgein@gmail.com
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