In other words, the deeper you peer into space, the better the chances are that these planets are no longer there?
2007-06-25 08:56:12 · 10 answers · asked by bi_lisa07 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
I don't think we've found planets more than 100 light years away. And for a planet to disappear within a 100 years is possible but improbable. (I don't think any of the planets are circling around stars that are about to go supernova. So it would need to be due to something more exotic like planet killing lasers)
2007-06-25 09:01:14 · answer #1 · answered by IamSpazzy 2 · 6⤊ 0⤋
I'm not aware of any non-controversial detection that was actually added to the extrasolar planets encyclopedia of a planet that would be likely to be "no longer there".
There is a strong observational bias against such detections, as radial velocity or transit detection methods are generally applied to stars where the star and planetary system can be presumed to still be around - the stars being old enough that unstable orbits should have already decayed and too calm to cause instability, and also fairly close (a few 100 pc at most, so the time frames are fairly short).
In theory, gravitational microlensing could result in an (essentially random) detection of a planet accompanying a distant star in an evolutionary stage that might mean the system has since been destroyed; that hasn't happened yet.
2007-06-25 09:21:21 · answer #2 · answered by The Arkady 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Not likely. The planets being discovered around other stars are no more than a few hundred light years away. Planets change very little in a few centuries, let alone millions of years. If we could resolve surface features on these worlds, we may be looking at storms and volcanic eruptions that ended long ago.
2007-06-25 09:25:45 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, it's possible but not likely. It takes quite a bit to dislodge a planet from its star or to destroy it, especially planets in another solar system big and heavy enough to be detected from Earth.
2007-06-25 09:03:15 · answer #4 · answered by devilsadvocate1728 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Considering the fact that they a really planets or not. It was usually thought that pluto was a planet but there is now doubts.
2007-06-28 05:03:07 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, the light take it's time to travel from long distances in the deep space to us.
2007-06-25 10:10:24 · answer #6 · answered by Gearld GTX 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes, but we are not going to find out in the near future. hope nobody will launch a space ship only to find their destination no longer looks like the map!
2007-06-25 09:04:59 · answer #7 · answered by thunderbird 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
yes, as it takes so long for the light from these planets to reach us, they could be long gone.
2007-06-26 05:08:01 · answer #8 · answered by Kit Fang 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, it is. What we're seeing is what occured hundereds if not thousands of years ago. So theoretically the panet could have been destroyed centuries ago and we don't know it... yet!
2007-06-25 09:15:40 · answer #9 · answered by Efnissien 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Very true like I answerd this question when I saw it but you weren`t there lol.
2007-06-25 19:08:17 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋