Misc

Astronomers admit their planetary formation theory is wrong but say it's right about the solar system. Discovery supports electric stars. More.

"But in the mid-1990s, astronomers actually started finding those exoplanets — and they looked nothing like those in our Solar System. Gas giants the size of Jupiter whipped around their stars in tiny orbits, where core accretion said gas giants were impossible. Other exoplanets traced out wildly elliptical orbits. Some looped around their stars' poles. Planetary systems, it seemed, could take any shape that did not violate the laws of physics."

Orbiting poles.

"Some hydrogen and helium does not fall straight into the newborn star, but instead swirls around it, forming a thin, flat disk that orbits the star's equator. Carried along with this gas are tiny solid grains of heavier elements such as carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, silicon and iron, all made in earlier generations of stars. As the disk cools, electrostatic charges stick these grains together to form loose conglomerates that eventually grow into kilometre-scale bodies known as planetesimals. At that point gravity takes over, and the planetesimals collide, fragment, mash together and grow into full-sized planets. As that happens, friction with the surrounding gas forces them into almost circular orbits."

It's good to know the standard theory includes electrostatic forces now. It didn't used to.

"WASP-7b orbits its star's poles instead of its equator; the orbit of HD 80606b is highly elliptical, ranging from 0.03 AU at one end to 0.8 AU at the other; HAT-P-7b's orbital direction is opposite to its star's spin."

Oops.