Vol 1 no 1
News & Views
Massive Dark Planets
Some massive planets in close orbit of stars appear to be composed of a core of Briahtic matter and a shell of other-Domain matter. This may explain the long-standing puzzle of massive extrasolar planets orbiting very close to their suns.
image © John Whatmough
Extra-solar planets have been detected in orbit around many nearby stars.
When searches for these planets first made, late in the last millenium, it was assumed that the solar systems found would be broadly similar to ours, with light rocky planets close to the central sun and more massive bodies furthur out.
Instead it has become plain that many of these solar systems consist of planets of a mass exceeding that of Jupiter, but in very close and often very eccentric orbit.
Before the advent of Domain cosmology, the formation of these planets so close to their primaries was a puzzle. Small, rocky, planets were assumed to form by the accumulation of planetismals, in the condensing Solar nebula. Large gas-giant planets form when hydrogen and helium gas subsequently condense onto such a rocky core. But such giant planets cannot form in hot regions close to suns, because the escape velocity of any plausible rocky core is below the thermal velocity of hot hydrogen gas.
The alternative process of direct disk collapse has been suggested as a route for creating giant planets. However, this process, also, cannot occur close to the centre of a solar nebula.
It seems inconceivable that a planet more massive than Jupiter could form within half an AU of its central sun: yet this has happened, not once but many times.
Consider, for example, the system designated HD 217107. This consists of a sunlike star with a Jupiter-sized planet in an orbit less than ten million kilometers from its primary, circling every seven days. Though this is an extreme case, the majority of extra-solar systems we know about consist of giant or subgiant planets very close to their sun: and though our crude modes of detection are biased towards such systems, it seemed plain that something is very wrong with our theories of planet formation.
Dark planetary envelopes?
Now that we understand the composition of the Dark matter which makes up much of the universe, the puzzle of these massive close planets may be solved.
We theorise that, as the Earth consists of at least 95% Briahtic matter, so these planets may be a least 95% non-Briahtic. They may consist of a small core of ordinary matter buried in a vast mass of other-domain material.
The formation of these planets could follow one of several paths. Other-Domian matter might be gravitationally captured by a gathering solar nebula, and itself condense into large bodies, which could then perturb the Briathic planets in various ways. Or, very early in the System formation, Briahtic matter might gather round a "seed" of other-Domain material, to form planets or planetismals.
An alternate scenario would invoke late alteration of planetary orbits. If a medium sized rocky planet in an orbit similar to the Earth's picked up several times its mass of other-Domain matter, conservation of angular momentum would move it in towards its sun.
Other scenarios can easily be imagined.
Planetary engineering?
A more radical possibility is that these large close planets are of artificial origin.
We must remember that the Yesodic Domain, at least, has been the host to life for billions of years. Yesodic matter appears to be scattered throughout the galaxy in small bodies with sizes from that of a comet up to that of a giant planet: at a conservative estimate one Earth mass of Yesodic matter passes through the solar system every million years.
If the Darks in a distant solar system could deflect even a small amount of this interstellar Yesodic flux into the gravity well of a Briahtic planet, they could theoretically alter its orbit radically.
Why should the Darks wish to do this? Possibly, to capture energy from the systems' sun. A massive Yesodic envelope is unaffected by solar radiation, but the Briahtic matter imprisoned within it is not, and could be tapped for heat by controlled cross-Domain interaction.
This may seem remarkable: but consider that within one century, we anticipate being able to navigate asteroids in the range of 1015 Kg across the solar system. (1) If an equivalent amount of Yesodic matter was dumped on the Earth every year, then within one gigayear the Earth's orbit would be radically changed.
It is inconcievable that any human culture should carry out such an undertaking, but the psychology of the Darks is completely unknown.
And furthurmore at least three passages in Dark Transmission XVII hint of the controlled movement of planet-sized masses (2), though the time-scale involved seems so short that a mistranslation is suspected. This, however, must remain speculative for now.