An Orphaned Planet Got Kicked Out Of Its Own Solar System
In a faraway star system, gravitational violence may have hurled a giant planet to the fringe.
About 300 light-years away, a giant planet has been evicted from its starry neighborhood. The world is now about 650 times farther from its star than Earth is from the sun, scientists announced Tuesday at the Extreme Solar Systems III meeting in Hawaii.
That’s more than 16 times farther from the sun than Pluto is.
But the planet, known as HD 106906b, didn’t end up in the suburbs by chance: Scientists suspect giant gravitational nudges from another planet—or perhaps from a passing star—sent it zooming outward. It’s the same kind of process that scientists blame for the billions of rogue, starless worlds that wander our galaxy. They’ve just never really seen it in action.
“This whole picture of a dynamically disturbed
