Globular clusters and planets.

[pioneer0333]

Can planets orbit around stars inside of globular clusters? Or is the gravity too strong to allow planets to orbit in that kind of enviorment? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[kmarinas86]

As long as they are "close enough"<br /><br />You can have binary stars in globular clusters as well, so planets are not out of the question either. <br /><br />Not that we would be able to see them, yet.

 

[dark_energy]

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/binary_planet_021009.html<br /><br />Not exactly a globular cluster, but it is a multiple star system. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[qso1]

I recall a book I have written by world reknowned astronomer Patrick Moore in which he said that planets could not form around binary star systems because of<br />complex gravitational interactions.<br /><br />I'm sure there are those in the astronomical community that will say the same based on the current state of the art in astronomy which suggests that there are even more gravitational interaction problems within globulars.<br /><br />I suspect they will be proven wrong. If one could be on a planet near the center of a glob, what a spectacular night sky! But the distances between stars should<br />be sufficient to allow planetary formation around stars within globs.<br /><br />As for sufficient planet building material, thats another question. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[dark_energy]

A planet has already been found around a binary system:<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Planet Found in Tight Binary Star System <br />By SPACE.com Staff<br /><br />posted: 03:00 pm ET<br />09 October 2002<br /><br /> <br /><br />A planet larger than Jupiter has been discovered in a two-star system in which the stars are closer together than any pair previously found to harbor a planet.<br /><br />Astronomers said the finding was important because most stars are not alone in space but instead are part of one of these so-called binary systems. <br /><br />The planet is estimated to be 1.76 times as massive as Jupiter. It orbits the primary star of the binary system (called Gamma Cephei) a little farther out than Mars is from our Sun. The star is about 1.6 times as massive as our Sun.<br /><br />The second, relatively small star is about the same distance from the primary star as Uranus is from the Sun.<br /><br />The discovery was led by Artie Hatzes of Thueringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg and Bill Cochran from the University of Texas, Austin and the McDonald Observatory. <br /><br />In previous discoveries of planets orbiting stars in binary systems, the stars were a hundred times farther apart than those of Gamma Cephei, Cochran said. "The stars were far enough apart to be essentially acting totally independently," he said.<br /><br />Theorists have wondered to what extent the gravitational mechanics of tight binary star systems could support planets.<br /><br />Observations that led to the discovery date back 20 years and involve studying variations in the light output from the star. <br /><br />Researchers monitor minor shifts in the light's wavelengths that indicate a star is wobbling due to the tug of an orbiting planet. The method, akin to listening to the wail of an ambulance change as it moves toward and then away from you, is the only one used so far to find planets outside our solar system. About 100 have been detected, but none has ever been</p></blockquote> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[qso1]

Dark_energy:<br />A planet has already been found around a binary system:<br /><br />This I'm aware of, my point was a world reknowned astronomer got it wrong when he said planets around binaries were not possible. He stated this in a book I have that was published in 1983, well before exoplanet research started getting somewhere.<br /><br />So there is no reason to conclude globs don't have stars with planetary systems. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>