Astronomers discovered dozens of rogue planets, almost doubling the number of known mysterious planets. Here’s everything about the discovery
Astronomers discover rogue planets
A team of astronomers found a collection of over 70 exoplanets without parent starts. According to NASA, exoplanets are any planet that is present beyond our solar system. The group is by far the largest single group of rogue planets found in history. According to the study, it was located in a patch of space around 420 light-years away from Earth. “We did not know how many to expect and are excited to have found so many,” stated Núria Miret-Roig. Miret-Roig is the lead author of the study and an astronomer at the University of Vienna in Austria and the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux, France.
Mostly, exoplanets are located with the help of observations of the host star. Astronomers observing them look for slight stellar motions. They are induced by the gravitational tug of the orbiting planet. For example, spotting small brightness dips is normal when a world ‘transits’ the surface of its parent planet. However, rogue planets are not easy to locate. Astronomers use gravitational microlensing. The technique involves watching objects move in a background full of stars. Here, the foreground body acts as a gravitational lens by bending the light from a distant start. Hence revealing the mass and features of the closer object.
More on the shocking discovery
Instead of using gravitational microlensing, Miret-Roig and her team analyzed 20 years of data and imagery from telescopes across the world. “We measured the tiny motions, the colors, and luminosities of tens of millions of sources in a large area of the sky. These measurements allowed us to securely identify the faintest objects in this region, the rogue planets,” explained the lead author. The study also reports the infrared energy emitted by 70 to 170 gas-giant rogues. Additionally, research reveals that rogue planets are helping researchers get a better understanding of the formation of planets.