Scientists have recently discovered scores of free-floating worlds that defy classification. The new observations have forced them to rethink their theories of star and planet formation. The post Rogue Worlds Throw Planetary Ideas Out of Orbit first appeared on Quanta Magazine
When Galileo Galilei, a mathematician at the University of Padua, trained a spyglass of his own creation on the sky, he was overwhelmed with what he saw — more than 500 new stars in the constellation Orion, in addition to the familiar three in the hunter’s belt and six in the sword. In October, astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to zoom in on one of the middle stars in the sword and…