Three geezerhood ago , a mysterious object was observed be adrift alone in interstellar space , 80 light - year from Earth . Much adult than Jupiter but smaller than most maven , it was hollo a rogue planet , and now astronomers can confirm that the aim is indeed a planet .
PSO J318.5338 - 22.8603 , or PSO J318.5 - 22 for unretentive , is a large wandering objective in the Beta Pictoris moving group . It has a mass of 8.3 times that of Jupiter and a temperature of about 1100 Kelvins . A detailed verbal description of the findings has been published onArXiv .
When it was give away , it was considered a uncanny brown dwarf , a character of whiz that has failed to initiate nuclear fusion . PSO J318.5 - 22 was alone in space without a companion star and had a high temperature advise it was a leading object , but the light pass off was similar to gas exoplanets seen elsewhere in the galaxy , so scientist believe that it might be a rogue planet .
" We have never before seen an physical object free - drift in infinite that looks like this . It has all the characteristic of young major planet found around other stars , but it is range out there all alone , ” Dr. Michael Liu , drawing card of the team that discovered PSO J318.5 - 22 , say in astatementat the clock time .
Multicolor simulacrum from the Pan - STARRS1 telescope of the rogue planet PSO J318.5 - 22 . N. Metcalfe & Pan - STARRS 1 Science Consortium
Confirming PSO J318.5 - 22 ’s global position has not been easygoing , due to the age - temperature degeneracy of brown dwarf . That might go like a complicated concept but it ’s very simple : Brown dwarfs set about their spirit very hot and over time they cool down . Calculating the long time of planets is very unmanageable , but there are ways to establish the age of a chemical group of stars with a high degree of truth .
Luckily , PSO J318.5 - 22 seemed to be part of the Beta Pictoris moving chemical group , a young and belittled star cluster relatively near Earth . Using the Hawaiian telescopeGemini North , astronomers confirm that the potential rogue satellite was part of the chemical group and thanks to the fact that the age of the group has been forecast already , they were able to provide the long - sought check . PSO J318.5 - 22 is about 23 million years quondam , too young and cool to be a brown midget .
