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Q:
About the "dark matter" that is being searched for; I was
wondering if it would be possible for some of the missing mass
to be in the form of extra-solar planets? They seem to be much
bigger than Jupiter and are being found more frequently as of
late, and I'm sure they will be found regularly in the future.
If even two-thirds of stars have the possibility for a planetary
system around them, that should add up to something substantial,
right?
A:
The extrasolar planets that have been found so far are very
interesting, but unlikely to explain the dark matter. Most are
comparable to Jupiter, which has a mass of about 0.001 solar
mass. If planets are to account for the dark matter, there would
have to be several thousand of them around every star!
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