From what it is, to what it might be like to live there, join me as we explore The Loneliest
Planet: HOw is LIfe on Rogue Planets?
I know what you're thinking, "wait, what is a rogue planet?"
Out there, somewhere in the universe, are planets that are both just like all the others
in the universe, and yet are infinitely different.
These are known as Rogue Planets.
And they're called that for a very simple reason.
It's because these planets, for whatever reason, were born to the universe...without being
tied to a star.
Confused?
I'll explain.
If you believe in the big bang version of the creation of the universe, then you believe
that when the "explosion of matter" happened, it flung everything out into the universe
at large, and is even still expanding to this day.
Galaxies formed via gravitational forces via the stars and planets that were made.
Yet, the force apparently "kicked out" many planets, and they're now roaming the universe
at large.
There's even speculation that a rogue planet is just outside our solar system.
The idea of other planets being just outside our realm is rather enticing, but it's also
scary.
Because a new planet suddenly appearing could throw our solar system into chaos.
And if it's going fast enough as it hurdles through space, it could even crash into another
planet.
Maybe even Earth.
There are some scientists who believe that the Earth has already collided with a rogue
planet.
And it was this collision that created the moon that we see above us.
Showing that even in great destruction, there can be wonderful creation.
Now the question should be asking is, "well how do we know that these Rogue Planets exist?"
A very sound question given our more "rooted" place in the universe as well as how we are
able to look at the stars and galaxies around us.
Basically, we noticed some oddities as we looked at the stars themselves.
In 2011, a study was published via scientists from Osaka University.
They looked at over 50 million stars and noticed over 170 anomalies that didn't make sense
at first.
Objects that were bending light in a way that most objects don't.
As they looked deeper, they realized that the majority of these objects were bending
lights from stars or other objects, making them stand out from the crowd if you will.
But ten of these objects were revealed to be not be anywhere close to any stars.
What's more, they were as large as planets, and sometimes even as large as certain types
of stars!
It was here that we truly found Rogue Planets, and realized that they were moving through
space at great speeds despite not having a tether to a parent star.
So how do they move then?
Well, not unlike virtually every object in the Milky Way Galaxy, they are tethered loosely
by the galaxy itself, which has a gravity field that keeps the stars and planets in
line so that they "go with the flow" of the galaxy if you will while not shooting out
into other galaxies or deep space.
The problem with Rogue Planets though is that because they don't have a closer tether to
orbit around (like the Earth does with the sun) it's only loosely guided by the pull
of the galaxy itself, and thus hurdles through unknown reaches of space.
In many ways, a Rogue Planet is the "loneliest planet" in the universe.
Not because it may not have life on it (which we'll get to in a bit), but because unlike
virtually every other planet in the known universe, it doesn't get the light of a sun
to show off its beauty, or get the warmth of the star to help make it more than what
it is.
And because it's a Rogue Planet (based on our knowledge of planets and their relationships
to their stars) scientists believe that the whole entity is cold, frozen, and dark.
Now, we noted a little bit earlier that these Rogue Planets were "kicked out" of their systems
and that they're going through space at a good clip, but how fast are they going exactly?
Well, we honestly don't know, because it's really hard to find and track these planets,
however, we can do some comparisons based on a certain other thing we know can go rogue...a
star.
That's right, stars have gone rogue in the past and we've been able to track them, and
when they go throughout space without a tether, they can reach speeds of up to 1.5 million
miles per hour.
So does that mean a Rogue Planet can go that fast?
Sure, it could, but more than likely, it goes a lot faster.
Why is that?
Do recall that stars and planets may have similar sizes at times, but that doesn't mean
they have the same mass.
A star always has more mass than a planet, and so since Rogue Planets are smaller than
stars and have less mass, that means that it takes less time and effort to move through
space.
So, knowing this fact based on basic physics, scientists have calculated that Rogue Planets
could barrel through space at a rate of 10-30 million miles per hour.
On the high side, that would mean that these Rogue Planets are traveling about 5% the speed
of light.
And many, MANY times greater than anything that Earth can fling into space even with
our best technology.
Could you imagine if one of these Rogue Planets just randomly barreled into our universe?
It's very likely that we wouldn't be able to do anything but watch as it approaches
and potentially wrecks everything.
Because even though the distance between Earth and Pluto is 3.2 billion miles away, depending
on the size and speed of the planet, there's nothing we could do to deter or block its
path.
After all, we can barely do anything to block a large asteroid, let alone a planet!
On that grim note, let me ask you a question.
How many Rogue Planets do you believe are out there in the Milky Way Galaxy?
We know/knew of at least ten via the survey from 2011.
But how many do you think are out there in the stars?
The truth is that we have no clue, and just as scary, scientists are actually debating
the numbers...and they have a very large range.
Some scientists think that this is a somewhat rare phenomena, and that though a planet may
"start out" as a Rogue Planet, they'll eventually end up by a star that is able to grab it in
its gravity pull.
Others though think that not only is this NOT a rare thing, but they feel that there
could potentially be more Rogue Planets in the Milky Way Galaxy that there are stars
in it.
For the record, it's estimated that the Milky Way (as of 2019) has about 200-400 billion
stars.
So if there are as many or more Rogue Planets?
That's a lot of mass flying around in space untethered.
But how can there be so many Rogue Planets?
Well, not unlike the formation of other planets...it all has to do with the art of creation.
Before we dive into what makes these Rogue Planets, be sure to like the video and subscribe
to the channel.
That way you don't miss any of our weekly videos!
As you hopefully know, there are two distinct types of planets in the universe.
Solid, and gaseous.
Earth is a good example of a solid planet, and Jupiter is an example of a gas planet.
These planets formed via millions of years of gravity, compression, and certain other
things that led to them being the planets we know now.
And Rogue Planets formed very much the same way.
After all, when the Big Bang happened, clouds of gasses were poured all over space, and
it's believed that the gravity of the galaxy sometimes formed these small gas giants into
planets without them being tied to another star.
To be clear, they are planets and not stars despite forming in similar ways.
These planets are even referred to as "Sub-Brown Dwarfs", a reference to Brown Dwarf Stars,
the smallest kinds of stars that technically aren't stars themselves despite acting like
them at times.
But with Sub-Brown Dwarfs, they don't even show the kind of things that make them act
like stars, so they just drift through space as a ball of gas.
As for the solid/rocky Rogue Planets, they have a different path to becoming adrift.
You see, these Rogue Planets were very much like Earth or Mars or even Pluto (still a
planet...).
They were once locked in with a star, but then somehow, someway, they were "kicked out"
of their system and became a Rogue Planet.
I know that might sound like something from science fiction, but it's not as rare as you
might think.
First off, in the earliest days of the solar system, it's possible that these stars and
planets didn't have the stability that many systems have now.
Shifting gravities, orbits that put one another closer than they should, and more could've
forced one planet to be kicked out.
The other option is that a collision or invasion of something into the system shook thing up
in a way that could've allowed a planet or two to be kicked out.
Not unlike what could happen to say Pluto if a large Rogue Planet got caught in our
suns gravity at the outer edges of the system.
Finally, a paradigm shift in the status quo of a system could've expelled some outer planets
as it happened, like if a star suddenly went Supernova, its shockwave could've been strong
enough to blast a planet out of its orbit without destroying it.
There are many ways this could've happened, but the results remain the same, the Rogue
Planet was born.
Alright, so, let's get to the elephant in the room, the question that virtually everyone
asks about planets in general, but now you want to know if it's even possible in these
circumstances.
Mainly... ...is there even a chance that there life
on a Rogue Planet?
In short, the answer is yes.
There is a chance that life could be on a Rogue Planet, especially if it came from a
situation where it was part of a solar system for a period of time before being ejected
into the unknowns of space.
After all, many believe that there is life out there, it just needs the right conditions,
so taking random chance and probability into account, it's entirely plausible that life
could indeed exist on a Rogue Planet...for a time at least.
Think about our Earth for a second.
The reason we're able to exist is due in large part to our sun.
The sun that provides us warmth, gives us light, and so much more.
A Rogue Planet wouldn't have that at all.
In fact, the only light and warmth that it would get would be from the galactic core,
which obviously wouldn't be much.
Based on estimates, the average temperature for a Rogue Planet drifting through galactic
space would be about -270 degrees Celsius, which would mean that it would be unbearable
cold.
All surface life would likely die.
If there are oceans, they would be frozen solid.
The surface itself would be frozen almost to its core.
It would need something like a hydrogen-rich atmosphere if it were to last for a long time
without a sun, and even then it would have limits.
Plus, if the worst case scenario were to happen and the planet were to go into intergalactic
space (the literal space between galaxies), the heat would plummet to just a few degrees
above Absolute Zero, and the light would literally be nothing.
So how could anything survive on such a world without light or heat?
Well, you're think about this as if aliens or human-like beings were on these planets
and are still on them now.
Not unlike our own world though, you need to think smaller at times.
In this case, we're talking about oceans.
If a Rogue Planet had oceans, and those oceans were deep enough, they could have something
very similar to what we have on Earth...hydrothermal vents.
Basically, these vents are entities that sprout out of the Earth itself and into the oceans
to dump out heat from the core of the planet.
We have these on our planet in several forms, and there is indeed microscopic life that
do a very of photosynthesis because of these vents and their heat.
"But wait", you say, "I thought you said that most Rogue Planets would have frozen oceans?"
And I did, but like I said, if the oceans were deep enough like our own oceans, the
freezing would only go down a certain depth.
Our own ocean goes over 36,000 feet in terms of depth, that's more than Mount Everest!
So if our world was to suddenly go into the deep freeze, the oceans' surface and immediate
layers would freeze over, but not the deepest depths where these vents are done.
Or at least, they wouldn't at first.
Because of the potential life that these vents could give, and the time needed for evolution
to take place, it's possible that certain Rogue Planets are filled with various forms
of oceanic life that is more than fine in the cold temperatures of the water.
Not unlike how there are creatures living in the Mariana Trench despite its intense
pressure, and how if you bring one of those creatures up to the surface, it'll die because
it wasn't ready for that shift in its lifestyle.
Granted, not all life lasts forever, and it's possible that the planet would eventually
become uninhabitable for even the most resilient of deep sea species.
But the point here is...it's possible.
And since Rogue Planets do fly through the universe, it's technically possible that a
planet with life may have flown by us...and we've never even noticed.
Thanks for watching everyone!
What do you think about these Rogue Planets and the lives that they live?
Do you think we'll ever get to see a Rogue Planet near our own solar system?
What do you think about the possibility of one of them having life on it?
Let me know in the comments below, be sure to subscribe, and I'll see you next time on
the channel!