Saturday, June 9, 2012

Worlds Without Suns: Nomad Planets Could Number In The Quadrillions

Worlds Without Suns: Nomad Planets Could Number In The Quadrillions:

Artist's concept of a free-floating Jupiter-like planet. (NASA / JPL-Caltech)
The concept of nomad planets has been featured before here on Universe Today, and for good reason. Not only is the idea of mysterious lone planets drifting sunless through interstellar space an intriguing one, but also the sheer potential quantity of such worlds is simply staggering. If some very well-respected scientists’ calculations are correct there are more nomad planets in our Milky Way galaxy than there are stars — a lot more. With estimates up to 100,000 nomad planets for every star in the galaxy, there could be literally quadrillions of wandering worlds out there, ranging in size from Pluto-sized to even larger than Jupiter.
That’s a lot of nomads. But where did they all come from?


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