Untethered Planets

 As it happens the wanderers, vagabonds and drifters who roam our earth's surface have kindred spheres in the cosmos that mirror their rambling movements ---known as "untethered planets." 

Yes, these are planetary nomads that have been described as "orbiting nothing at all."  They are a world unto themselves, floating through the inky void to the beat of their own drummers. Likely thrown out of their orbits eons ago after crashing into stars or other planets, these celestial loners travel as aimlessly as a hobo looking for the next train. Bound by no star or orbital path, they are "rogues" of the galaxy.

When I read about untethered planets in an issue of Discover magazine, I was sad to read that though astronomers believed they existed, they wouldn't be able to detect them for another 10 years, because they needed a sensitive telescope and it would take 10 years for NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope to be launched. 

Then I looked at the date of the magazine. It was from 2012 ---ten years ago!  OMG we're here!! 

I got the weird sensation I had just time traveled. 

Bring out the WFIRST and bring on the hobo planets!  

UPDATE:  Turns out the Discover article had been a little over-eager. The WFIRST, also known as the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is still in development, expected to launch by May 2027.  Ah dang. Still five more years, sigh....

Well, while we wait, let's learn something about Nancy Grace Roman.... 

 NGR was rare for her time, a female space nerd in the 50's with a degree in Astronomy. She bounced around between observatorys and did cool things like observing the changing emission spectrums of the star AG Draconis and dabbling in non-thermal radio source spectra (whatever the hell that is) and worked on things like geodetics and microwave spectroscopy. She joined NASA six months after it formed in 1959 and eventually became the first female executive at NASA and became the first ever Chief of Astronomy. 

Nancy Badass Grace Roman helped get satellites and rockets off the ground and had to convince Congress to back the Hubble telescope. Thus she became known as "the Mother of Hubble."  

Of all the discoveries made with the Hubble, what this astronoma-mama said was the most interesting was "Dark Energy" (whatever the hell that is.) Well guess what? Dark Energy is believed to be what 73% of the universe is.  

Another 23% is made up of Dark Matter.  Then 4% is hydrogen and helium. 

That leaves less than 1% for all the other odds and ends. The stars... solar systems... floating, untethered planets..........and us.