Galaxy May Be Full of Wandering Hobo Planets (Planet-Sized Bindles Unconfirmed)
Nomad Planet Not pictured: Bindle, dirty vest, boxcar. Greg Stewart / SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Over at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), which is associated with Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, a new study indicates that not only are there many so-called "nomad planets" in our galaxy, but that there may be tens of thousands of them, drifting through the Milky Way unattached to a star or your buttoned-up corporate way of life. Nomad planets have only been confirmed in the last year or so, mostly by monitoring nearby stars to see if and when their light is "refocused" by a large passing object, like a planet. This new study is more math-based; it relies on the known gravitational pull of the entire galaxy, and how that might divide up into objects ranging in size from Pluto-sized rocks to Jupiter-sized giants. The research suggests...