NASA now believes our galaxy is home to trillions - not billions - of rogue planets

[Shawn Knight]

Through the looking glass: Scientists from NASA and Osaka University in Japan now believe that trillions – not billions – of planets have "gone rogue" in the Milky Way galaxy. These interstellar outcasts, sometimes called wandering planets or nomads, formed like any other around an infant star but later broke free from their star's gravitational pull for one reason or another. It was originally believed that our own galaxy may contain billions of unbound planets but the true number could be in the trillions.

David Bennett, a senior research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said they estimate the Milky Way is home to 20 times more rogue planets than stars. That equates to trillions of worlds wandering all alone. And that is just in the Milky Way, one of what could be hundreds of billions or even trillions of other galaxies in the universe.

Their findings are the result of a nine-year survey known as Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics, or MOA for short. Microlensing events happen when an object like a planet or star aligns with an unrelated background star from our vantage point.

Gravitational lensing also allowed the Webb space telescope to capture a supernova-hosting galaxy at three different points in time, all in the same image.

As NASA explains, anything with mass warps the fabric of space-time, like the dent formed when putting a bowling ball on a trampoline. Light normally travels in a straight line but if space-time is bent, light will instead follow the curve.

The closer of the two objects acts like a natural lens, magnifying the brightness of the background object. "Microlensing is the only way we can find objects like low-mass free-floating planets and even primordial black holes," said Takahiro Sumi, a professor at Osaka University. They're essentially using gravity to discover distant objects we could never see directly.

A pair of papers on the subject have been published online for those seeking a deeper technical analysis.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch by May 2027, should help NASA find even more lower-mass rouge planets, all of which is key to helping better understanding planetary formation mechanisms.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/99696-nasa-now-believes-our-galaxy-home-trillions-not.html

 

[Tantor]

The idea of rogue planets wandering through the solar system is not recent. Read Velikovsky's book Worlds in Collision. I'm skeptical of Velikovsky's theory but there's no question that there are some titanic impact craters on the Earth, Moon and Mars. Some people believe that Mars was hit by an enormous meteor, causing the Heles Field crater on one side, and the Mons Olympus mountain range on the opposite side of the planet.

If a rogue planet were to pass through the solar system, the chance of being hit would be almost zero, but the passage would displace huge numbers of meteors. Some of them might hit the Earh. The same happens when large comets pass through the system.

 

[UdyrL]

Which of the trillions: the short or the long one?

Considering the noodle soup of units used here, this is a very impactful distinction.

 

[JamesBlond]

NASA .....Need Another Seven Astrologers

 

[Threadcount]

I really want to meet the guy doing the counting in NASA's basement, coming out after 27years of counting into the billions just to realize he has to go back down and start all over.

 

[JamesBlond]

Which of the trillions: the short or the long one?

Considering the noodle soup of units used here, this is a very impactful distinction.

they need to count in brazillions, its more than trillions

 

[saladbarsmash]

They're constantly wrong, but speak as if they are all knowing, that is what irks me the most. If they just stated they believe in whatever they're stating, I would actually have more confidence in them, but this is an issue plaguing all of science right now.

 

[PEnnn]

They're constantly wrong, but speak as if they are all knowing, that is what irks me the most. If they just stated they believe in whatever they're stating, I would actually have more confidence in them, but this is an issue plaguing all of science right now.

"...plaguing all of science right now."

Actually, the real plague is the people who doubt science to suit their agenda.

NASA was constantly wrong?? You're talking about NASA that landed multiple missions on the moon using essentially primitive technology by today's standards. And has sent, among otter achievements, space probes that are still traveling (way outside the solar system) and are still under control and fully functional almost 50 years after launch!

But now NASA is being judged by basement and arm-chair self appointed judges of science!

Now, that is the real plague of the 21st century.

 

[mbk34]

It would make a fairly interesting SciFi film (I think) where a wandering rogue planet drifted through the solar system. A rush mission to send astronauts to investigate. A forgotten civilisation all died out but automated stuff still working. The time limited by needing to get back to Earth. Maybe infection or weight means nothing large can be brought back. Maybe one person stays behind to keep broadcasting for as long as they can.