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Earth-like planets in interstellar space?

News Update, ASTRONOMY NOW, Aug 1999, p. 9:

Earth-like planets in interstellar space?

Life-sustaining, Earth-like planets could be roaming the voids of
interstellar space, according to an article published in Nature by David
Stevenson of the Califomia Institute of Technology, Pasadena.
Stevenson starts from the premise that rock and ice "embryos" with
masses comparable to that of the Earth are likely to form during the
early stages of planet evolution. Some of these are likely to be ejected
from the developing solar systems through gravitational interactions
with young, gas giant planets.
Far from the heat of the star around which they initially formed, these
ejected planets could retain a sizeable atmospheric envelope of nebular
gas - mainly hydrogen. When this gas cools, it could exert sufficient
surface pressure to maintain oceans of liquid water. With a growing body
of evidence suggesting that life can develop and be sustained by energy
sources other than sunlight, Stevenson argues that such bodies may
provide a long-lived, stable environment for life.


Best wishes from 86°F Southern Germany,

Bernd

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