(Lucius Chiaraviglio) wrote in sci.astro:

I haven't yet seen a satisfactory rebuttal to this: how do we
know
that the gas giant discovered recently in the globular cluster
(article at
http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/stein...src/planet.pdf or copy
at http://www.arxiv.org/ftp/astro-ph/pa...7/0307339.pdf; press
release at http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/2003/19/text) is
of the same age as the globular cluster? Presumably, stars from
outside the globular cluster occasionally fall into it and get
captured; the same could happen with a gas giant planet (or possibly a
star having a giant planet could get captured along with its planet).


I was too lazy to refer to the above links, but a rebuttal could be the
composition of the planet or the form and stability of the orbit. Objects
being caught by Sun or planets in our own solar systems are well known for
having very eccentric orbits, and composition of planets reflects the
abundance of materials in planets, especially heavier elements.

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