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18 Homeless Planets Discovered"Lost in space" takes on a whole new meaning with 18 newly found orbs in the Orion constellation. The huge planet-like objects have no place to call home -- instead they drift through the cosmos sans any central star around which to orbit. If these "free floaters" -- as scientists call them -- truly are planets, then theories about how planets form will be called into question... "The formation of young, free-floating, planetary-mass objects like these are difficult to explain by our current models of how planets form," said lead author Maria Rosa Zapatero Osorio, a Spanish researcher currently working at the California Institute of Technology. Others agree: "There is no consensus yet on how to form free-floating planet-mass objects," says David Charbonneau of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "Tackling this question over the next few years will be a lot of fun."
by Robert Roy Britt
5 October 2000
New evidence for the Moon's soft middle
New Scientist ^ | 14 February 2002 | Will Knight
Posted on 12/27/2004 2:29:35 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1309193/posts
Scientists Find That Saturn's Rotation Period Is A Puzzle
University of Iowa ^ | June 28, 2004 | Gary Galluzzo and Don Gurnett
Posted on 01/13/2005 6:00:04 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1320410/posts
Spitzer Sees the Aftermath of a Planetary Collision
Universe Today ^ | Jan. 10, 2005 | Dolores Beasley and Gay Yee Hill
Posted on 01/13/2005 8:50:18 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1320521/posts
The Yardangs of Mars
Geological Society (UK) ^ | July 24, 2004 | staff
Posted on 01/01/2005 11:18:55 AM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1312117/posts
interesting data at this new topic, but it's shaping up like another crevo bloodbath, so I'm treating it as if it were read-only.
Rapid-born planets present 'baby picture' of our early solar system
EurekAlert | September 9, 2005 | Staff
Posted on 09/09/2005 9:39:51 PM PDT by DaveLoneRanger
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1481572/posts
bump, with links:
Far-out worlds, just waiting to be found
New Scientist | 23 July 2005 (issue date) | Stuart Clark
Posted on 07/20/2005 10:54:18 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1447339/posts
Astronomers Find a New Planet in Solar System
The New York Times | 7/29/05 | KENNETH CHANG
Posted on 07/29/2005 3:35:26 PM PDT by Right Wing Professor
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1453462/posts
Earth: no longer the lonely planet
SpaceRef | 9/26/03
Posted on 09/27/2003 10:19:20 AM EDT by KevinDavis
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/990576/posts