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Exactly how a planet can inflate so much is a question that no existing theory of planetary formation can yet answer. Is there a reason to limit theories to na
by onion2k 2y ago
Exactly how a planet can inflate so much is a question that no existing theory of planetary formation can yet answer.
Is there a reason to limit theories to natural formation? An alien race could have built it as a hydrogen storage tank or something.
- jdiff 2y agoBecause of all the things humanity has learned about the universe, none of them has turned out to be aliens or evidence of aliens. You can theorize it all you want, but so far every time the universe has just turned out to be a big, strange place.
- RHSman2 2y agoAren’t we the evidence for aliens?
- jdiff 2y agoWe're a pretty big statistical outlier as far as any of us can tell.
- RHSman2 2y agoWe exist, therefore it is proven.
- klyrs 2y agoUntil evidence to the contrary is found, it is not reasonable to assume that aliens are going around making planets. I say no, we have no reason to make such an assumption. If we think we've done a good job enumerating all of the ways that a planet can naturally form, that would provide reason to suspect that we've missed something. But pinning it on aliens capable of planet-scale engineering is quite the jump. For example, rather than a hydrogen storage tank, perhaps this was once a primordial rogue planet, a frozen ball of hydrogen hurtling through space. If it was then captured by a star's gravity well, and gently warmed by its newfound environment, it could expand into the anomaly we see today. Perhaps in another hundred years, we'll see that it's shedding its gas into a ring around the star. This sounds improbable, but I find it less incredible than immediately jumping to intelligent life.