...at one point or another, you realize that all of the anti-science pointing and shouting in the world will never take away from a utterly bizarre, wonderful discovery like this:
Astronomers have discovered what they believe to be a rogue planet
floating through space without a star. The super-Jupiter, called
CFBDSIR2149, has a mass four to seven times that of our own gas giant,
and is probably a scorching 800 or so degrees Fahrenheit. It appears to
sit in a moving group of stars that, at a rough distance of 65
light-years, is just a cosmic stone’s throw away from us.
If the idea of a planet sans star seems more than a trifle outlandish, it probably isn't. Probably.
Researchers aren't quite sure how such an untethered planet comes to
be: It may be that they form the standard way, from the ring of
coalescing dust around a young star, and is later somehow kicked out of
the system.
So the next time anyone is daft enough to believe that there's no point to scientific research or even the idea of science in general, show them this. And then feel free to shake your head.
(Also on WTTFTG)
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