Gimme Funding!

If you thought dark matter "theory" was retarded, try this on for size:

Researchers at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) have submitted a study to the Monthly Notes of the Royal Astronomical Society that suggests that our Milky Way Galaxy is full of “nomad planets” – planets that don’t actually orbit any star.

Using gravitational microlensing, scientists are able to determine when the gravity of a large object alters the light coming from a star on its way to Earth. That technique has been used so far to identify a dozen nomad planets. Using that as a basis, researchers then took into account the gravitational pull of the galaxy and the known amount of matter in it, then “divvied up” the material that could form planets. This gave them a literally astronomical number of nomadic planets in the Milky Way.

“To paraphrase Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, if correct, this extrapolation implies that we are not in Kansas anymore, and in fact we never were in Kansas,” said Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution for Science in a Stanford press release. “The universe is riddled with unseen planetary-mass objects that we are just now able to detect."

”If any of these nomad planets are big enough to have a thick atmosphere, they could have trapped enough heat for bacterial life to exist,” said Louis Strigari, leader of the team noted in the press release.

Excuse me? Where did you get your degree, Clown University Inc.?

Let's recap: You see some light occlusion of a few distant stars. Lacking corroborating evidence of any kind, you immediately conclude that the phenomenon is caused by rogue planets wandering at random through interstellar space. Then you multiple a wild-ass guess by your Social Security number and pronounce the galaxy "teeming" with these heretofore unimagined, unobserved, phantom objects. You then go on to suggest that an object in interstellar space, presumably light years from any star, may somehow retain enough heat to support life.

Well, that is the most asinine and lame attempt to secure funding which I have ever had the misfortune to witness. For shame. If you were a medical doctor, they would pull your license.