Looking for that planet you misplaced?

*rogue

I’ve seen the TARDIS tow Earth but that’s about it… Maybe The Doctor put it there?

@ragingloli Dang. You mean it’s not a ball of red makeup? Self flagging in operation.

@DWW25921 Ha! Let’s just hope it isn’t heading for Earth. That would be one hell of a big piece of space junk to collide with.

At first, Han Solo thought the Death Star was a planet too.

There’s so much scope for yet another Uranus gag here, but I just can’t be bothered.

I don’t quite get it, so this planet isn’t orbiting anything? Can’t very well just float around all over the place, doing whatever it damn well wants, no? I’m reading the article, but it’s all sciency and complicated, lol. Ha but this is interesting. I guess since it’s probably a gas planet, there isn’t anything on there. But gas or not, how the hell does it maintain itself if it keeps drifting around? Wouldn’t it need some consistent heat or cold to remain as is? I wonder just how many more of these rogue planets there are.

The last time The Doctor ran in to a rogue planet, it turned out to be propelled by an enslaved cosmic whale.

Did you see fins?

@Symbeline ” ...so this planet isn’t orbiting anything? Can’t very well just float around… ”

I think you’re right. Not much in space just floats around unless it was caught in a tug of war between two giant masses. Perhaps we’ll calculate an orbit. It may be on the very long side of a very long elliptical curve. It may be pinball-ing throughout the cosmos in a never ending tug of wars for its favor. The stars are playing a game… get the girl.

If the rogue planet has a moon and if cold fusion technology is available (for unlimited energy) then you can use the moon to pull the planet back to its desired location. This could be done by covering the entire surface of one side of the moon with with rocket engines with their nozzles pointing out to space.

Then calculate the amount of force needed at a very specific direction to put the moon into an elliptical orbit around the planet. This will change the direction that the planet is moving and direct it very slightly into the desired location. As the planet travels make adjustments of the moon’s orbit as needed. When the planet is where you want it then put the moon back into a circular orbit around the planet.

If the rogue planet has no moon then you could make one by simply collecting enough asteroids to make a moon of adequate size.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Solo was on the wrong end of the spectrum. It was an anti-planet.

@ucme I know. Gas giants bring that out in the best of us. :-)

@Symbeline & @RealEyesRealizeRealLies Actually there is a fair amount of stuff that, while following this and that gravitational pull, does not orbit anything in particular. In a couple of billion years, our own Milky Way Galaxy is going to begin a 3 billion year collision and merger with our nearest galactic neighbor, Andromeda. The enormous forces as the super-massive black holes at the center of the two galaxies began to dance ever closer will fling some planets, stars and even smaller black holes out into space beyond the galaxy, where they will wander till they gravitationaly link with something else, it collide with it. I hope this doesn’t happen to Earth, because I checked by collision insurance, and I am not covered for black holes.

@Seek_Kolinahr Even after cataract surgery, 80 light years is beyond my range of vision.

@gondwanalon Or, since it’s a gas giant, put a cover over it with a nozzle attached to one side, then turn on the glo-plug and watch her go.

@ETpro So you’re saying this planet may just kinda mooch orbiting from other stuff, then fucks off and finds someone else? wow, this planet is an asshole XD Didn’t know that was common since the article said that they thought this couldn’t happen until now. (I guess they meant planets, and not other stuff, as I’m aware that ’‘space debris’’ usually don’t have a real source, unless they become a ring around some planet) I showed the article to someone, and they told me that the planet might be able to maintain itself by generating its own necessities. But I guess a gas planet isn’t the same at all as something else that is solid.