Exocast-71b: Do All Planets Orbit Stars?
In this episode, Hannah, Hugh, and Andrew ask the question: Do all planets orbit stars?
Even though the vast majority of planets found so far are bound to a star, there have been detections of planetary-mass objects floating alone through space. Are these planets? How do these objects form, and how can we detect them? Is it possible that these free-floating objects could be considered ‘habitable’? The exocast gang tackle these tricky topics and other nomenclature-related debate surrounding this seemingly simple but deceptively complex question.
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