Rogue Solar Systems … Loners in a Cold Universe (and Probably Impossible?) If we were galaxy-less, if the Milky Way was not our home, things would essentially be the same here on Earth. Of course, we would miss that streak across our night sky that the Milky Way provides for us. Our solar system is kept pretty well “insulated” by the solar wind that emanates from our sun. This wind creates something called the heliosphere.  The result of this is that almost every bit of matter filling the solar system, besides the planets and moons and other orbiting objects, comes from the Sun. The force of all those solar particles pushing out creates a bubble of safety that protects us from the interstellar medium. Voyager 1 is currently at the edge of this bubble, about to enter the unknown gauntlet of interstellar space. A better question is whether a rogue solar system could even exist in the first place. The Milky Way began at least 13.2 billion years ago, as a blob of density after the big bang began to collapse and compress into the rotating spiral shape we know today. But our solar system is thought to only be about 4.5 billion years old, when it grew out of a similar spinning disk of debris. The very center of this disk became the Sun, and the outer bits became the planets. It stands to reason that to get a solar system, complete with planets, you need a galaxy first. To my knowledge, there are no rogue solar systems, only rogue planets and … Rogue stars! We have detected stars that appear to be hurtling through space, free from a galaxy to call home. The thing is, they are traveling over 2 million miles per hour. This is because they USED to be in the center of our galaxy, but were whipped out like a slingshot due to the intense gravity surrounding our central black hole. Like this: The amount of gravity that it would take to send a star careening out of the center of the Milky Way at two million miles per hour would most likely have a negative effect on any planets it once possessed. Meaning it would destroy them. Which is not good.
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Rogue Solar Systems … Loners in a Cold Universe (and Probably Impossible?)

If we were galaxy-less, if the Milky Way was not our home, things would essentially be the same here on Earth. Of course, we would miss that streak across our night sky that the Milky Way provides for us. Our solar system is kept pretty well “insulated” by the solar wind that emanates from our sun. This wind creates something called the heliosphere. 

The result of this is that almost every bit of matter filling the solar system, besides the planets and moons and other orbiting objects, comes from the Sun. The force of all those solar particles pushing out creates a bubble of safety that protects us from the interstellar medium. Voyager 1 is currently at the edge of this bubble, about to enter the unknown gauntlet of interstellar space.

A better question is whether a rogue solar system could even exist in the first place. The Milky Way began at least 13.2 billion years ago, as a blob of density after the big bang began to collapse and compress into the rotating spiral shape we know today. But our solar system is thought to only be about 4.5 billion years old, when it grew out of a similar spinning disk of debris. The very center of this disk became the Sun, and the outer bits became the planets.

It stands to reason that to get a solar system, complete with planets, you need a galaxy first. To my knowledge, there are no rogue solar systems, only rogue planets and …

Rogue stars! We have detected stars that appear to be hurtling through space, free from a galaxy to call home. The thing is, they are traveling over 2 million miles per hour. This is because they USED to be in the center of our galaxy, but were whipped out like a slingshot due to the intense gravity surrounding our central black hole.

Like this:

The amount of gravity that it would take to send a star careening out of the center of the Milky Way at two million miles per hour would most likely have a negative effect on any planets it once possessed. Meaning it would destroy them. Which is not good.

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    Cool.
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