90 percent of all exoplanets discovered to date (there are now more than 5000 of them) orbit around stars the same size or smaller than our sun. Giant stars seem to lack planetary companions, and this fact has serious implications for how we understand solar system formation. But is the dearth of planets around large stars a true reflection of nature, or is there some bias inherent in how we look for exoplanets that is causing us to miss them? The recent discovery of two gas giants orbiting a giant star called ยต2 Scorpii suggests it might be the latter.
Continue reading “Even Stars Doomed to Die as Supernovae can Have Planets”Even Stars Doomed to Die as Supernovae can Have Planets
