rogue planet tagged posts

The only way astronomers have been able to detect rogue planets is through microlensing events caused by the slight gravitational effect of an object on background light. This occurs when the light from a distant star suddenly appears magnified to an observer (telescopes on Earth), as if a lens were placed in front of it. The magnification of light lets astronomers know that something has passed in front of the distant star.

Theoretically, microlensing can allow for the calculation of the mass of the object passing in front of the star by analyzing how much the light was bent and thus magnified...

Astronomers have identified an enormous “growth spurt” in a so-called rogue planet. Unlike the planets in our solar system, these objects do not orbit stars, free-floating on their own instead. The new observations, made with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), reveal that this free-floating planet is eating up gas and dust from its surroundings at a rate of six billion tons a second. This is the strongest growth rate ever recorded for a rogue planet, or a planet of any kind, providing valuable insights into how they form and grow.

“People may think of planets as quiet and stable worlds, but with this discovery we see that planetary-mass objects freely floating in space can be exciting places,” says Víctor Almendros-Abad, an astronomer at the Astro...

Artist’s illustration of Planet Nine, a world about 10 times more massive than Earth that may lie undiscovered in the far outer solar system. Credit: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)

Space researchers James Vesper and Paul Mason with New Mexico State University have given a presentation at this year’s American Astronomical Science meeting outlining the results of simulations they have been running to learn more about Planet Nine—a planet that many in the space science community believe exists far beyond Pluto. They presented evidence suggesting that if Planet Nine is out there, it is likely a rogue.

Planet Nine was first predicted to exist just 2 years ago, when a team of investigators noticed what appeared to be an unknown gravitational influence in the outer solar system...