Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

SLAM: debunk creationism, pseudoscience, and superstitions. Discuss logic and morality.

Moderator: Alyrium Denryle

Post Reply
User avatar
Solauren
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 10324
Joined: 2003-05-11 09:41pm

Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by Solauren »

Lost in Space

Montreal group finds lonely planet lost in space 130 light-years from Earth
By TOM SPEARS, Postmedia News November 15, 2012


Montreal astronomers have found a lonely planet drifting through space without a solar system to call home.

It is 130 light-years from Earth, four light-years from the nearest star, in a region so dark it's invisible to ordinary telescopes. But the new "rogue" planet, called CFBDSIR 2149, gave away its position because it is warm - about 400 C - and heat shows up on infrared telescopes.

Étienne Artigau of the Uni-versité de Montréal and his group discovered it through the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. The team leader is from the Lab-oratoire d'Astrophysique de l'Observatoire de Grenoble.

"We've suspected for some time that objects like this exist," René Doyon, a senior astronomer at the UdM, said. In fact, large objects have been detected in more distant parts of space.

But this is the first one that's planet-sized and not too far from Earth.

The new planet is about the size of Jupiter, but it's believed to weigh between four and seven times more than Jupiter. The astronomers think it has a rocky centre surrounded by dense gas, which is the source of its heat.

It's probably round, Doyon said, but they can't be sure.

Planets like this are known as gas giants and are generally not considered candidates for finding alien life.

Did the planet somehow lose its star?

"We don't know," Doyon said. One possibility is that it was once part of a solar system but was somehow jolted away from its home. But it may never have orbited a star in the first place.

It's floating slowly through space as part of a "moving group" of objects that are drifting along together, allowing astronomers to hypothesize it's the same age as the rest of the group. That would make it 50 million to 120 million years old - very young in space terms.

If there are other homeless planets drifting through space, they could be very hard to detect. Planets near Earth are visible because they reflect sunlight.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette


Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/technolo ... z2CV8EYAih
And the search for planets just got more interesting.....
I've been asked why I still follow a few of the people I know on Facebook with 'interesting political habits and view points'.

It's so when they comment on or approve of something, I know what pages to block/what not to vote for.
User avatar
Eternal_Freedom
Castellan
Posts: 10399
Joined: 2010-03-09 02:16pm
Location: CIC, Battlestar Temeraire

Re: Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by Eternal_Freedom »

Indeed. And to think I was saying only the other day that even if things liek this existed we wouldn't see them that far away. Then again, it is at 400 K, that's going to show up on infrared maps quite nicely.

Oh, and incidentally:

"Planets like this are known as gas giants and are generally not considered candidates for finding alien life."

No shit. It's got no solid surface and at the outer layers is hot enough to boil water. Pretty damn inhospitable.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."

Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
Dr. Trainwreck
Jedi Knight
Posts: 834
Joined: 2012-06-07 04:24pm

Re: Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by Dr. Trainwreck »

As much as some people wouldn't understand it, this is again a triumph of science. We simply thought that it wouldn't be impossible for such rogue planets to exist, so they quite likely exist. And, lo and behold, evidence. Same with the discovery of the Higgs boson.

Incoming plug: on another note, "a superjovian that travels in dark space" reminded me of Peter Watts' Blindsight.
Ποταμοῖσι τοῖσιν αὐτοῖσιν ἐμϐαίνουσιν, ἕτερα καὶ ἕτερα ὕδατα ἐπιρρεῖ. Δὶς ἐς τὸν αὐτὸν ποταμὸν οὐκ ἂν ἐμβαίης.

The seller was a Filipino called Dr. Wilson Lim, a self-declared friend of the M.I.L.F. -Grumman
User avatar
Eternal_Freedom
Castellan
Posts: 10399
Joined: 2010-03-09 02:16pm
Location: CIC, Battlestar Temeraire

Re: Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by Eternal_Freedom »

The triumph is more in the detection than in the theory. The idea of planets being ejected from solar systems is hardly novel, we just thought any such planet would be so cold and dark as to be undetectable beyond a few light years. And now we find one 130 light years distant. Most impressive.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."

Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
User avatar
PeZook
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 13237
Joined: 2002-07-18 06:08pm
Location: Poland

Re: Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by PeZook »

Part of me wants for it to be so hot because it's a huge ball of hydrogen powering an absurdly humongous fusion torch, turning a gas giant into an interstellar ship.

I know it's not. I would just love it to be so.
Image
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
User avatar
CaptainChewbacca
Browncoat Wookiee
Posts: 15746
Joined: 2003-05-06 02:36am
Location: Deep beneath Boatmurdered.

Re: Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by CaptainChewbacca »

I wonder if its got some moons the size of the Jovians, because THAT would be an interesting place for life to evolve.
Stuart: The only problem is, I'm losing track of which universe I'm in.
You kinda look like Jesus. With a lightsaber.- Peregrin Toker
ImageImage
User avatar
Irbis
Jedi Council Member
Posts: 2262
Joined: 2011-07-15 05:31pm

Re: Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by Irbis »

"Probably" round? How the check you make such planet not round?
Eternal_Freedom wrote:"Planets like this are known as gas giants and are generally not considered candidates for finding alien life."

No shit. It's got no solid surface and at the outer layers is hot enough to boil water. Pretty damn inhospitable.
Except, something so massive can easily have Earth-sized moons. We thought a lot more things are impossible, life evolving on such a world would just be one of them.

And even if it is too hot for life as humans imagine it, so what? Life doesn't need to be based on oxygen-coal combinations, say, theoretical life based on some silicate compounds could feel pretty comfortable there (as they are liquid at that temperature, pretty big requirement for life supporting chemistry).
KhorneFlakes
Padawan Learner
Posts: 371
Joined: 2011-04-23 12:27pm

Re: Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by KhorneFlakes »

There's also metals as well. Metal and some crystalline materials are excellent building blocks for life, and I wouldn't be too surprised if we eventually discover some more advanced forms of life utilizing them for their chemistry.
User avatar
Irbis
Jedi Council Member
Posts: 2262
Joined: 2011-07-15 05:31pm

Re: Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by Irbis »

Yeah, I wouldn't say no for life to evolve in environments we pretty much can't imagine, or survive there if it evolved before it was solitary planet, after all, we don't exactly have a big sample to compare to say such things authoritatively.

Also, one additional nitpick:
"We don't know," Doyon said. One possibility is that it was once part of a solar system but was somehow jolted away from its home. But it may never have orbited a star in the first place.
Unless they know something big I missed, that would be STAR system, thank you :wink:
User avatar
PeZook
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 13237
Joined: 2002-07-18 06:08pm
Location: Poland

Re: Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by PeZook »

Is there any chance that it's simply a failed star that just didn't manage to gather enough mass to ignite?
Image
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
Jade_Angel
Redshirt
Posts: 1
Joined: 2012-10-19 11:03am

Re: Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by Jade_Angel »

PeZook wrote:Is there any chance that it's simply a failed star that just didn't manage to gather enough mass to ignite?
Generally speaking, that'd be a brown dwarf. Conventionally, brown dwarfs have at least 13 Jovian masses, which is roughly enough to ignite deuterium fusion (and less than about 73 Jovian masses, enough to fuse hydrogen). An object that formed independently of any star, but isn't massive enough to fuse deuterium, either, could be termed a sub-brown dwarf or a rogue planet. There is, AFAIK, quite a bit of debate if making that distinction actually makes any sense, or if it's even possible to tell.

From a terminology standpoint, it could matter - if it's a planet then any orbiting objects are moons. If it's a sub-brown dwarf, then any natural satellites are planets. But that's mostly splitting semantic hairs.
User avatar
Eternal_Freedom
Castellan
Posts: 10399
Joined: 2010-03-09 02:16pm
Location: CIC, Battlestar Temeraire

Re: Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by Eternal_Freedom »

Yeah, ok, there are other forms of life which might be able to live in such environments, I'll concede that. Articles like this however, "alien life" can be assumed to be synonymous with "the kind of life on Earth" or "the kind of life we could detect/receive signals from."

If it's not a brown dwarf then I would be very suprised if it wasnt ejected from it's star system.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."

Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
User avatar
Solauren
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 10324
Joined: 2003-05-11 09:41pm

Re: Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by Solauren »

Would it still count as forming in a star system if it was part of a nebula that got 'blown off' and finished collecting on it's own before a full system formed?
I've been asked why I still follow a few of the people I know on Facebook with 'interesting political habits and view points'.

It's so when they comment on or approve of something, I know what pages to block/what not to vote for.
User avatar
RRoan
Padawan Learner
Posts: 222
Joined: 2005-04-16 09:44pm

Re: Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by RRoan »

PeZook wrote:Is there any chance that it's simply a failed star that just didn't manage to gather enough mass to ignite?
Objects in this mass range can form in the same manner as a star, yes. Where you draw the line between star and non-star is somewhat murky, though; brown dwarfs, objects in the 13-80 jupiter mass range can undergo deuterium fusion for a short time, are not actually capable of sustained fusion of normal hydrogen. This thing is even smaller, so it's definitely not a star even though it might have formed in the same manner.

It's not a planet, incidentally. Planets must, by definition, orbit a star. Astronomers haven't gotten around to figuring out a proper name for planemos (planetary-mass objects) that aren't bound to any star.
User avatar
ryacko
Padawan Learner
Posts: 412
Joined: 2009-12-28 08:27pm

Re: Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by ryacko »

It's not a planet, incidentally. Planets must, by definition, orbit a star. Astronomers haven't gotten around to figuring out a proper name for planemos (planetary-mass objects) that aren't bound to any star.
zomgarroan. Actually the English language is not regulated by any central body, but by the speakers themselves.

It is apparently in a cluster of planet-like objects.
Suffering from the diminishing marginal utility of wealth.
User avatar
Irbis
Jedi Council Member
Posts: 2262
Joined: 2011-07-15 05:31pm

Re: Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by Irbis »

RRoan wrote:It's not a planet, incidentally. Planets must, by definition, orbit a star. Astronomers haven't gotten around to figuring out a proper name for planemos (planetary-mass objects) that aren't bound to any star.
Um, 'Planetar'? :wink:
User avatar
Borgholio
Sith Acolyte
Posts: 6297
Joined: 2010-09-03 09:31pm
Location: Southern California

Re: Rogue Planet found (Planet with no Star)

Post by Borgholio »

Well "planet" by it's original definition means "wanderer". I'd say this thing is wandering quite nicely on it's own...
You will be assimilated...bunghole!
Post Reply