Most Planets In the Universe Are Homeless

StartsWithABang writes: We like to think of our Solar System as typical: a central star with a number of planets — some gas giants and some rocky worlds — in orbit around it. Yes, there's some variety, with binary or trinary star systems and huge variance in the masses of the central star being common ones, but from a planetary point of view, our Solar System is a rarity. Even though there are hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy for planets to orbit, there are most likely around a quadrillion planets in our galaxy, total, with only a few trillion of them orbiting stars at most. Now that we've finally detected the first of these, we have an excellent idea that this picture is the correct one: most planets in the Universe are homeless. Now, thank your lucky star!"

Comments

Great....

[alaskana98]

Now not only do I have to be thankful that I have a roof over my head, now I have to be thankful I have a star over it to.

Classification

[sproketboy]

Actually these are not planets according to the new classification.

First, it must orbit the Sun.
Second, it must be big enough for gravity to squash it into a round ball.
And third, it must have cleared other objects out of the way in its orbital neighborhood.

http://missionscience.nasa.gov...

Two points

[gurps_npc]

1) This is not dark matter. We can detect these, as proven by the fact that we just did. They convert visible light into infrared light and we can measure the total heat coming from galaxies and compare with light.

2) These should be called slacker stars. They had so much potential, but just blew it all and eventually their parent's kicked them out.

Re:TopSlot

[halivar]

This is the most insightful and informative ever to follow from the word "penis".

Re:TopSlot

[halivar]

And of course, I accidentally a word.

Re:so how did they form?

[halfEvilTech]

this would also explain the dust bunnies that love to form under my bed

Re:TopSlot

[SJHillman]

So what you're saying is that I'm a ... MACHO man? Maybe even a macho MACHO man?

Also, interesting reads.

Re:Typical bad reporting

[bluefoxlucid]

My new tax bill will completely eliminate planetary homelessness by creating an intergalactic market opportunity providing dwarf stars to the most poverty-stricken of planets at a viable profit.

Re:TopSlot

[Tiger4]

Don't get cocky!