“Direct image searches of young stars show that very few stars have giant planets. [wide] It orbits,” Bate said. “It’s hard to accept that there were many large planetary systems in Orion that needed to be destroyed.”
There are a large number of invalid objects
For now, many researchers believe there may be more than one way to create such strange intermediate objects. For example, with a little tinkering, theorists might discover that supernova shock waves can help compress small gas clouds and cause them to collapse into smaller pairs of stars more easily than expected. And Wang’s simulations showed that launching giant planets in pairs is theoretically inevitable, at least in some cases.
Although many questions remain, the large number of floating worlds discovered in the past two years has taught researchers two things. First, they form rapidly, taking millions of years rather than billions. In Orion, while modern humans were evolving on Earth, gas clouds collapsed and planets formed, some of which were probably dragged into the abyss by passing stars.
“Forming a planet over a million years is difficult with current models,” van der Marel said. “this [discovery] It would add another piece to the puzzle. ”
Secondly, there are many worlds out there that are not tied down. And just as a bowling ball is the most difficult object to knock off a pool table, it is the most difficult to expel a heavy gas giant from its system. This observation suggests that for every Jupiter discovered, a large number of free-floating Neptunes and Earth go unnoticed.
We probably live in a galaxy full of exiled worlds of all sizes.
Almost 500 years after Galileo marveled at the needles of light of the countless moons, planets, and stars in Earth’s sky, his successors are now discovering the brightest icebergs of dark objects floating among them. I’m getting to know a part of it. Small stars, starless worlds, invisible asteroids, alien comets, etc.
“We know there’s a lot of crap between the stars,” Raymond said. This kind of research would “open a window on everything, including not just free-floating planets, but free-floating objects in general.”
original story Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine, Editorially independent publication simmons foundation Its mission is to enhance the public’s understanding of science by covering research developments and trends in mathematics, physical sciences, and life sciences.