Not all planets are lucky enough to have a solar system. Some are out there all alone, drifting through space. Recently, astronomers managed to measure one of these “rogue” planets for the first time.
This particular planet has about 20% of Jupiter’s mass and is located nearly 10,000 light-years from Earth, in the direction of the Milky Way’s center. Its size hints that it likely formed within a planetary system before being flung away due to gravitational interactions with other celestial bodies.
Rogue planets are usually too faint to spot directly. Instead, astronomers detect them by observing their impact on light from objects behind them. When a rogue planet moves between the Earth and a bright star, its gravity creates a lensing effect, which can distort and brighten the star’s light.
Determining the mass of a celestial object typically requires knowing its distance. That’s tricky with rogue planets since they lack surrounding context clues. However, in this case, several ground-based telescopes in Chile, South Africa, and Australia observed the same microlensing event on May 3, 2024. The retired Gaia Space Telescope also caught the event six times over 16 hours.
Interestingly, Gaia was 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth during the observation. This distance provided a unique perspective, allowing astronomers to estimate the rogue planet’s distance and mass by analyzing the light it distorted, much like how our two eyes help us judge depth.
Through this method, they found the rogue planet’s distance to be approximately 9,785 light-years and its mass to be roughly 22% that of Jupiter.
Astrophysicist Gavin Coleman from Queen Mary University of London believes this research highlights the importance of coordinated observations for studying rogue planets. He mentions that the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch in 2027, will enhance our ability to study these mysterious worlds. This new telescope will survey large areas of the sky much faster than the Hubble Telescope, increasing the chances of capturing more gravitational lensing events.
This research was detailed in the journal Science, showcasing how advancements in technology and collaboration among scientists can deepen our understanding of these isolated planets.
For more insights into space discoveries, you can check the official NASA page here.
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