Lonely Planet

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justkillingtime
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11 Oct 2013, 1:25 am

www.cnn.com/2013/10/10/tech/space-new-p ... l?hpt=hp_c

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auntblabby
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11 Oct 2013, 2:08 am

a gas giant. I wonder if it is frigid?

AshTrees
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11 Oct 2013, 3:35 am

Wow! If it's just floating through space...I wonder if it will become attached to a star one day?

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justkillingtime
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11 Oct 2013, 10:48 am

I wonder why it is not part of a solar system.

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auntblabby
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11 Oct 2013, 11:55 am

justkillingtime wrote:

I wonder why it is not part of a solar system.

a passing high-mass object might have sucked it away from the center of gravity of its original system early in formation.

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11 Oct 2013, 12:04 pm

That's a good explanation. I was thinking maybe that solar system met with catastrophe but then there would be other planets without a sun in that area.

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ruveyn
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11 Oct 2013, 1:06 pm

auntblabby wrote:

a gas giant. I wonder if it is frigid?

It still may have internal heat. It depends how long it has been since it was formed.

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auntblabby
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11 Oct 2013, 1:22 pm

when the scientists referred to a "faint heat signature" I suppose that could mean that it could be at least one degree above absolute zero. but that would seem frigid to any living thing.

ruveyn
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11 Oct 2013, 2:16 pm

auntblabby wrote:

when the scientists referred to a "faint heat signature" I suppose that could mean that it could be at least one degree above absolute zero. but that would seem frigid to any living thing.

The Cosmos is at about 3 degrees kelvin so this planet would have to have a higher temperature than that.

auntblabby
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11 Oct 2013, 2:42 pm

I wonder if it is dark energy/matter primarily responsible for that 3 degrees kelvin, or the combined solar radiation of countless suns, or both?

Kraichgauer
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12 Oct 2013, 1:35 am

So I take it it's too cold to support life? :lol:

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auntblabby
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12 Oct 2013, 1:44 am

Kraichgauer wrote:

So I take it it's too cold to support life? :lol:

at least life as we know it. but who knows what kind of potential life form might survive such conditions? carl sagan did an interesting segment in "Cosmos" where he speculated just what kinds of lifeforms might live on a gas giant planet, I think he called 'em "hunters, floaters and sinkers."

Fogman
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12 Oct 2013, 5:09 am

What I think this planet is, is collection gasses, mostly hydrogen based compounds that did not have sufficient mass/pressure to create enough heat to sustain fusion. --What this planet is, is essentially an aborted or stillborn star.

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naturalplastic
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12 Oct 2013, 11:48 am

Fogman wrote:

Probably.

But then - thats basically what the gas giants in our own solar system are: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Balls of gas that are two small to initiate hydrogen fusion in their cores, but they are big enough to emit low level heat to supplement the heat they get from the sun.

auntblabby
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12 Oct 2013, 1:56 pm

a "faint heat signature" is not consistent with a brown dwarf but rather of a cold planet that is not quite dead yet.

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