Free-Floating Planets May be More Common Than Stars(jpl.nasa.gov)
jpl.nasa.gov
Free-Floating Planets May be More Common Than Stars
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-147&cid=release_2011-147
2 comments
This is far from my areas of expertise, I was hoping someone more knowledgeable might be willing to comment on whether or not this is a feasible explanation for dark matter? Thanks.
Not my area of expertise either, but I don't believe so. The dark matter (and energy) comes from very very large aggregate gravitational forces that are observed from galactic movement as a whole, but I think you already are aware of that, so I'm not saying anything new there, but I would certainly imagine that there would have to be a whole hell of a lot of extra-solar planets in order to account for what they're seeing, and it makes more sense (and they have presumably produced the stuff for a brief period in the lab) that there is an antithesis to matter (or energy) that is out there causing this behavior.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_Compact_Halo_Object
Basicly, there is not enough baryonic matter (stuff like protons and neutrons) in the universe to explain the observed effects of dark matter without invalidating a lot of other observations.
Basicly, there is not enough baryonic matter (stuff like protons and neutrons) in the universe to explain the observed effects of dark matter without invalidating a lot of other observations.
From the article:
> A 5.9-foot (1.8-meter) telescope at Mount John University Observatory in New Zealand is used to regularly scan the copious stars at the center of our galaxy for gravitational microlensing events. These occur when something, such as a star or planet, passes in front of another, more distant star. The passing body's gravity warps the light of the background star, causing it to magnify and brighten. Heftier passing bodies, like massive stars, will warp the light of the background star to a greater extent, resulting in brightening events that can last weeks. Small planet-size bodies will cause less of a distortion, and brighten a star for only a few days or less.