Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Planets Without Stars or Mini-Solar Systems?
"An article today on space.com discusses the discovery of 6 objects by the European Southern Observatory in Chile that are smaller than typical brown dwarfs, larger than Jupiter, and not orbiting any stars. The objects are surrounded by disks of gas and dust possibly similar to the early solar system. In addition to presenting astronomers with a new group of objects to study, the finding also deepens the debate over what makes a planet. The scientists responsible for the discovery sidestep the question by calling them 'Planetary Mass Objects,' or planemos."
source:http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/05/1815255
source:http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/05/1815255
# posted by dark master : 6/06/2006 10:04:00 AM
