There are many planets outside our solar system, orbiting a star many light years away. I have explained this in my Exoplanet article. But, did you know, that there are many ice cold planets light years outside our solar system, just drifting aimlessly, without a star to orbit around or a solar system to call home. These are called rogue planets, and I will be explaining them in detail in this article.
Scientists know that these lost planets cannot possibly form without a star or a solar system. No, these planets had a star, and a solar system, and were kicked out of their solar system, resulting in having no star, and no warmth, until their core dies or till they find another solar system by chance. These chances are pretty low, though. The nearest solar system to us is 4.2 or 4.3 light years away. In miles, that is 25.2 trillion miles to the nearest solar system.
How could a planet just be kicked out of the solar system, overruling the star’s immense gravitational pull? If a planet with the mass of Jupiter or more, got close inside the inner solar system, a planet with less mass (such as Earth or Mars) could be flung outside the solar system over about a hundred thousand years. Another way a planet’s orbit could go haywire is if a star passed within the solar system, causing many planet’s orbits to go haywire.
Could this ever happen to the Earth? There is a very, very little chance that this could ever happen to earth. A planet heavier than Jupiter does not exist inside the solar system, and Jupiter is not going to come close to the inner solar system. Saturn’s gravitational force is enough to stop that. As for a star passing near the solar system, that is not going to happen, and if it did, scientists would know a hundred thousand years in advance. There is nothing to worry about.
Sources used-
· nasa.gov
· Discovery
· Wikipedia
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