Rogue Planet Found Drifting In Space

    • The Independent
    • Publish Date: Aug 6 2018 11:12AM
    • |
    • Updated Date: Aug 6 2018 11:12AM
Rogue Planet Found Drifting In Space

A possible “rogue” planetary-mass over 12 times more massive than Jupiter has been found drifting alone through space around 20 light years away from Earth. The “rogue” object is not attached to any star, and is the first of its kind to be discovered using a radio telescope from Earth.

“This object is right at the boundary between a planet and a brown dwarf, or ‘failed star,’ and is giving us some surprises that can potentially help us understand magnetic processes on both stars and planets,” said Melodie Kao, an astronomer at Arizona State University. Brown dwarves are difficult objects to categorise they are too huge to be considered planets and not big enough to be considered stars.

Originally detected in 2016 using the Very Large Array (VLA) telescope in New Mexico, the newly identified object was initially considered a brown dwarf. However, when another team looked at the brown dwarf data they realised one of the objects, dubbed SIMP J01365663+0933473, was far younger than the others. Its age meant that instead of a “failed star”, they had found a free-floating planet.

The boundary often used to distinguish a massive gas giant plant from a brown dwarf is the “deuterium-burning limit” — the mass below whichdeuterium stops being fused in the objects core.

This limit is around 13 Jupiter masses, so at 12.7 the newly identified planet was brushing right up against it.

Similar to the Northern Lights, this planet and some brown dwarves are known to have auroras of their own — despite lacking the solar winds that are known to drive them. It is the radio signature of these auroras that allowed the researchers to detect these objects. The team’s analysis showed the planet’s magnetic field is around 200 times stronger than Jupiter’s, and this could help explain why it also has a strong aurora.

“This... object is exciting because studying its magnetic dynamo mechanisms can give us new insights on how the same type of mechanisms can operate in planets beyond our solar system,” Kao said.


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Kamalesh Bethel Mat Hr Sec School

Studying about magnetic dynamo mechanism is awesome

Bhargav Gawali bosco public school

according to scientists, there are billions of such planets wandering in interstellar space. i repeat, billions. and even more brown dwarfs. and quadrillions of asteroids and comets. all of that, in the milky way alone.

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