Rogue planet found 100 light-years away has been spotted by Astronomers The planet was found wandering without any stars to orbit. Some recent finds have led experts to believe they are a common occurrence, but candidates have eluded close study. The 50-120 million year old planet, age based on proximity of object, has been dubbed CFBDSIR2149-0403.
Rogue planets form in two different way. One, by coalescing from a disk of dust and debris but then thrown out by the host star’s orbit. The second is similar to stars but never reaching a full star’s mass. For this reason, it can be hard to determine if the planet is a planet or just a star that do not have enough mass to spark the nuclear fusion that causes starlight.
What remains unsure about this find, is how the particular planet became to be. Coauthor of the study, Phillippe Dearme of the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble, says that if it is a planet launched from its home, there’s a great many planets like it. “If this little object is a planet that has been ejected from its native system, it conjures up the striking image orphaned worlds, drifting in the emptiness of space,” he said.
What astronomers have found out so far about the object is that it appears to be moving with the group of 30 stars called the AB Doradus moving group. The age of the “planet” is said to be 50-120 million years old, approximately the same age as the stars. The team believes the temperature to be 400C and to have a mass between four and seven times that of Jupiter.
Shanika Simmons
