Could there be so much light near the center of the galaxy that life could exist on a planet with no sun?

Question

I was think more along the lines that many "solar systems" would form that would have a central "star" that was smaller than Jupiter and not have sufficient mass to fuse Hydrogen. It just seems likely but I have never heard of evidence for it. Some excellent points were given, such as the number of massive star (short lived) and the different likely composition of radioactive isotopes.

Answer 1

Rogue planets are planets without stars. We are fairly certain we have detected one or two of them.

There could certainly be rogue planets among the core suns, but my guess is the radiation would be so great that no life is likely to exist. The night sky would blaze with the light of millions of suns. In the core, the stars are packed something like a quarter light year apart. Contrast that with our space, where our nearest neighbor is 4.5 light years away. 4000 stars packed into the same volume of space we have about two.

I'm not sure how all that light translates to ambiant heat, but my guess is the planet would probably be rich in long lived isotopes, making it radioactive, and again unsuitable for life.

Then there are the supernova. One of those even 10 light years away could raise a bit of ruckus. Walls of hard radiation sweeping across the surface of the world every few hundred thousand years or less. That would make things difficult for evolution--earth's mass extinctions tended to be spaced much further apart--on the order of a hundred million years.

Answer 2

My understanding is that there are a lot of large stars near the center of the galaxy. Large stars burn hot and die young, resulting in a supernova explosion.

Needless to say, this wouldn't be particularly hospitable for life as we know it.

There might be some other weird scenarios out there where planets might be. Personally, I like the idea of a planet being in one of the Lagrange points in a binary star system.

Answer 3

Since, as you say, this (life existing outside planet earth) may never happen, why would you or anyone worry about it. And since you "believe in God", you must already know from your knowledge of the Bible, that Jesus said not to worry, that it doesn't "add one cubit to (your) life". (Matthew 6:27). God Bless you. Oh, and contrary to what "Sarah Palin" said, "extra-terrestial life" has NOT been "discovered about 5 hours ago". Any time you cite a "news-media" source, especially the likes of Yahoo, is the day you abandoned your intelligence. Just because you hear something on "the news" does NOT make it true at all. I learned that decades ago, back in the late 1970's as I recall.

Answer 4

Oh my Dear Sir...

We have forgotten what the light comes from, haven't we?

The light you speak of comes from nuclear fusion of hydrogen gas into helium gas. This process is rather identical to what goes on inside of a nuclear reactor or a nuclear bomb. The fusion process creates massive heat and tremendous amounts of radiation across the entire spectrum of radiated energy. That spectrum includes visable light, infra-red, ultra-violet, X-Rays, Gamma Rays, and all kinds of rays in between.

So, what ever life form might have decided to take up residence there could be forecasted to burn to a crisp from the tremendous heat and radiated into dust from the intense blasting of super intense X Rays and Gamma Rays. I would not choose to live there at all.

Answer 5

No. Even if stars were packed densely enough, a wandering planet would be constantly passing too close to some star or other every so often and frying any life on it.

Answer 6

The definition of a planet is that it revolves around a star. By your description, it would not be a planet.

Answer 7

Possibly, but you don't just form random planets in space (as far as we know) - it would have to be from another system and kicked out somehow.

Answer 8

In the vastness and diversity of the whole universe, almost any scenario is possible.