The text is a transcript of a video about rogue planets, which are planets that do not orbit a star and wander in the darkness of space. The text explains how rogue planets can form, how they can survive without a star, and how they can be detected. The text also explores the possibility of life on rogue planets, especially those that have subsurface oceans heated by geothermal vents. The text contrasts the different fates of rogue planets that stay within a galaxy and those that escape into intergalactic space, where they face extreme cold, isolation and emptiness. The text concludes by urging the viewer to appreciate the sun and its role in sustaining life on Earth.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. The Sun is essential for life on Earth and is responsible for everything that happens on the planet.
2. In 2011, a survey of over 50 million stars was published, which noted 474 incidents of a phenomenon known as microlensing.
3. Microlensing occurs when the gravity of a large object bends the light photons emitted from a light source as they travel in the direction of the Earth.
4. Ten of the instances of microlensing occurred with no star in the immediate area to be found.
5. The dark obscuring sources of mass are of similar sizes to the very largest planets and lightest stars.
6. These objects are not black holes or asteroids, but are thought to be entire planets.
7. Some of these planets may have formed without a star from pockets of collapsing gas clouds.
8. Others may have formed in young star systems and been ejected into space due to gravitational influences.
9. Rogue planets are planets that do not orbit a star and are instead barreling around interstellar space.
10. These dark runaway planets may have never known the light of a parent star or may have been lost from their parent star by some means.
11. Some scientists have suggested that there may be more of these starless planets in the Milky Way than stars.
12. There are likely billions of rogue planets flying around our galaxy alone.
13. Rogue planets can hurtle through the galaxy at speeds of up to 30 million miles per hour.
14. If a rogue planet's trajectory does not lead it to a new host star, it can aimlessly wander the cosmos for hundreds of millions of years.
15. Contrasting studies disagree on the commonality of rogue planets.
16. Two distinct types of rogue planets exist: massive gaseous orphan planets and rocky terrestrial planets that formed in solar systems like ours but have been lost into space.
17. Some rogue planets may form in a similar way to stars through the collapse of a gas cloud.
18. These failed stars are similar to brown dwarf stars, which cannot sustain hydrogen fusion.
19. The threshold for nuclear fusion to begin is about 13 times the mass of Jupiter.
20. Rogue planets can be ejected from their planetary systems due to various reasons, including gravitational influences from other planets or stars.
21. A supernova explosion could theoretically force a sufficiently distant planet out with its shockwave.
22. Rogue planets can travel alone and untouched in the intergalactic Tundra for tens of billions of years.
23. The space between galaxies is vast, with temperatures falling to as low as two degrees Celsius above absolute zero.
24. Everything in the universe is composed of atoms, but in the space between galaxies, there are significantly fewer atoms, with only ten atoms per cubic meter.
25. Intergalactic rogue planets are likely to be among the darkest places in the universe.
26. Any planet can be ejected from a planetary system, including those with life-supporting properties or life itself.
27. If life exists elsewhere in the universe and is somewhat frequent, the probability of simple cellular life going rogue with its host planet seems almost inevitable.
28. Surface life on a rogue planet would stand no chance of surviving as the exterior of the planet would completely freeze.
29. However, if the planet had oceans deep enough, perhaps similar depths to the Earth's, life could survive in subsurface oceans maintained by hydrothermal vents.
30. Hydrothermal vents are thought to be a likely candidate for where life began on Earth.
31. Life in these vents sources its heat and minerals from the planet's internal geological activity.
32. Even on a rogue planet, life could still manage to find a way to survive.
33. The search for rogue planets remains ongoing, but it's exceedingly difficult due to their darkness against the black backdrop of space.
34. Black holes are easier to detect because they are sources of energy or light sources, whereas rogue planets give off little to no emissions.
35. Scientists are confident that with the next generation of space telescopes, we will be able to discover hundreds more rogue planets.
36. Rogue planets could be flying past the outer edges of the solar system all the time.
37. We may have passed through the inner solar system before, with a collision with a rogue planet being one of the possible causes of Uranus's odd tilt on its axis.
38. With improved technology, we may one day be able to detect these rogue planets as they pass by our neck of the woods.