What are rogue planets and how did they come into existence? This article cites research in a new paper by Dr Gavin Coleman in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
An artist's illustration of a rogue planet, dark and mysterious. Image Credit: NASA
Dr Gavin Coleman is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Queen Mary University of London. It describes his way of understanding rogue or free floating planets (FFPs) as “an incrementally better way to understand FFPs.” “It is worth noting that planet-planet scattering around single stars cannot explain the large number of FFPs seen in observations,” Coleman explains. In his research, Coleman simulated binary star systems and how planets ejected from these systems behave. “We find significant differences between planets ejected through planet-planet interactions and those by the binary stars.”
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