We don't know for sure what's out there, but given the evidence for the Oort cloud and the way orbital dynamics work, we can pretty reliably infer the existence of a thin but pervasive population of icy bodies of all sizes from snowflake to Neptune, with abundance decreasing logarithmically with size.

On Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 12:42 PM, Bruce Johnson <xxxxxx@pharmacy.arizona.edu> wrote:

> On Feb 23, 2016, at 1:16 PM, Greg Chalik <mrg3105@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> But Bruce, how many exo-system Plutos could one expect to be out there? I'd say may be debris fields of Plutos for harvesting are more realistic?

We quite literally have no idea of what’s out there between the stars.

We don’t have the ability to see things that small, dark and cold; they could be common, they could be incredibly rare. We won’t know until we can look.

Heck, look at how much we’ve learned about Pluto in the last few months. I guaran-damn-tee you that if you suggested last year that we would find water icebergs ‘floating’ on a solid nitrogen ‘glacier’ people would have looked at you like you were crazy.

<https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/floating-hills-on-plutos-sputnik-planum>

Or that it’s moon was covered in water ice?

<https://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-s-hulk-like-moon-charon-a-possible-ancient-ocean>

Or that Planet X was still out there???

<http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/feature-astronomers-say-neptune-sized-planet-lurks-unseen-solar-system>


--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs

-----
The Traveller Mailing List
Archives at http://archives.simplelists.com/tml
Report problems to xxxxxx@simplelists.com
To unsubscribe from this list please goto
http://www.simplelists.com/confirm.php?u=PltOdItWBSgOP4y0Q6abkGbDI1eus0lz



--
Craig Berry (http://google.com/+CraigBerry)
"Eternity is in love with the productions of time." - William Blake