Can a Solar System Exist Without a Central Star?

[The Grimmus]

Sunless "solar"system

Is there such thing as a sunless solar system maybe not called solar but has all of the charicteristics of one minus the sun.
Possably a huge object being the gravation force or Dark matter or a mini black hole

 

[Brad_Ad23]

Or would a pulsar do? Such things are knwon (and indeed were the first planetary systems discovered in the late late late 80's).

 

[Draco]

I've never heard of a 'sunless solar system'
Although i have read, that if our sun collapsed into a stellar black hole, the planets would continue to orbit around it, but they'd receive no sunlight, and the Earth would die.
Actually in Science last term, there was a question on one of our homework sheets, something like "if the sun followed this process (how stars begin and die, we had to read that) what will happen to the planets? The Earht?"
Well i just wrote that the Earth would die because lack of sunlight, and i got it correct.

 

[Andy]

Its definately possible for this to happen, all it would take is a body with a large gravitational field (could be anything) to have other smaller objects in orbit.

 

[Ace-of-Spades]

They do exist and have been found. They've seen solar systems with one visible star. The star can be seen to have what is called an acretion disk, surrounding some other object which can't be seen. That unseen object could be anything from a black hole to a brown dwarf.

 

[The Grimmus]

Originally posted by Andy
Its definately possible for this to happen, all it would take is a body with a large gravitational field (could be anything) to have other smaller objects in orbit.

but if it where to be that big would that creat soem kind of fision at least in the center of the object?

 

[Ace-of-Spades]

No, not if all the elements involved in fission like Hydrogen had run out.

That is how a black hole forms in the first place.
(It was basically just a REALLY big star that ran out of fuel and so couldn't generate the pressure neede to hold itself together and so ended up collapsing in on itself) The gravity would still be there, just no reaction.

 

[FZ+]

Originally posted by Draco
I've never heard of a 'sunless solar system'
Although i have read, that if our sun collapsed into a stellar black hole, the planets would continue to orbit around it, but they'd receive no sunlight, and the Earth would die.
Actually in Science last term, there was a question on one of our homework sheets, something like "if the sun followed this process (how stars begin and die, we had to read that) what will happen to the planets? The Earht?"
Well i just wrote that the Earth would die because lack of sunlight, and i got it correct.

Hmm... I would have thought that mercury would undergo spaghetification due to the extreme tidal forces.

 

[Phobos]

It would seem that, by definition, a solar system requires a star. But certainly other systems consisting of stuff orbiting a non-star exist (just don't expect 9 planets, an asteroid belt, etc.)

"all the characteristics of a solar system"...I don't think there's a standard one-size fits all definition (other than the requirement of the star)

 

[The Grimmus]

well i meant having planents and other objects orbiting it and follows the orbit of a galaxy not another object

 

[DR OF DEATH]

so surely then saturn and its mooms could be classed as one of these systems.

it is a large object with smaller objects orbiting it. and it is not a star

 

[The Grimmus]

but it relvolves around the sun which revolves around the center of our galaxy if saturn where to revolve around are galaxies nucules then yes