Ploonet: What if a moon went rogue and acted like a planet? | Explained News, The Indian Express

Ploonet: What if a moon went rogue and acted like a planet? | Explained News, The Indian Express

By Express News Service |New Delhi |Published: July 18, 2019 12:43:46 am

Ploonet: What if a moon went rogue and acted like a planet?

What if a moon went rogue and acted like a planet? It can happen, astronomers say, and give it a name.

The researchers explain that the angular momentum between the planet and its moon results in the moon escaping the gravitational pull of its parent

Imagine an exoplanet, a gas giant orbiting its star while a moon orbits the planet itself. Now suppose the moon turns rogue as it moves nearer to its star, breaking away — or being forced out of its orbit by the planet — and going off on its own trip, in effect behaving like a planet in its own right. What is it now: a moon or a planet? Call it “ “ploonet”, suggests an international team of astronomers.