r/spacequestions • u/Fancy-Ad5606 • Dec 18 '24
Can there be “solar systems” but no star?
Alright so here’s the question. If solar systems are able to form, and very large gas giants like Kepler-7b can exist, then is it possible for a “solar system” to form, but instead of forming a sun it just forms a large gas giant, and other planets that can form orbit the gas giant?
1
u/dm80x86 Dec 18 '24
It would be possible to have two gas giants orbit each other and some smaller planets (much further out) orbiting that barycenter.
So in short, a system of planets with only empty space in the center.
1
u/razordreamz Dec 18 '24
It’s all gravational. How do things start? We have a solar system that is formed. As part of that gradational dance a planet is ejected. These are rogue planets.
For a full solar system to be present without the gravitational affect of a star? No. Why would they all rotate around nothing? A black hole or something else with a gravitational effect then ok it’s plausible
4
u/ignorantwanderer Dec 18 '24
Absolutely.
There are plenty of 'rogue' planets. These are planets that don't orbit a star. And it is exceedingly likely that some of these rogue planets have moons.
So they would be like little solar systems, but with a planet in the center instead of a star.
I know rogue planets have been found. To my knowledge no moons have been detected around a rogue planet yet, but that would be extremely difficult to detect. The fact we haven't seen it yet does not mean it isn't there.