Capturing planets
Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 07:31
in Astronomy & Space
(Phys.org) -- The discovery of planets around other stars has led to the realization that alien solar systems often have bizarre features - at least they seem bizarre to us because they were so unexpected. For example, many systems have giant planets closer to their star than Mercury is to the Sun, while other have the opposite - giant planets more than ten times farther way from their star than Jupiter is from our Sun. Astronomers think they understand how planets could end up close to the star: they gradually drift in from more customary orbits. But how can planets end up so far away?