lonely planet tagged posts

An artist’s impression of 2MASS J2126. Credit: University of Hertfordshire / Neil Cook

A team of astronomers in the UK, USA and Australia have found a planet, until now thought to be a free floating or lonely planet, in a huge orbit around its star. Incredibly the object, 2MASS J2126, is about 7000 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

In the last 5 years a number of free floating planets have been found. These are gas giant worlds like Jupiter that lack the mass for the nuclear reactions that make stars shine, so cool and fade over time. Measuring the temperatures of these objects is relatively straightforward, but it depends on both mass and age...