New Discovered Planet Doesn’t Orbit a Star
A curious plane was recently discovered by the astronomers outside our solar system. It is 12 times bigger than Jupiter and has a very odd feature: it does not orbit any star.
The strange ‘’rogue’’ planet rotates around the galactic center in interstellar space. Such cases are rare as only a few rogue planets have been found before but it is theorized that many similar planets may in fact exist. The planet was previously mistakenly labeled in 2016 as a brown dwarf planet. New analysis has proved that it is in fact a proper planet with an extraordinarily powerful magnetic field. It is estimated that the field is over 200 times stronger than the one present on Jupiter.
While we currently have limited visibility of celestial objects situated outside our solar system, new advanced telescopes are in making, and they will allow us to further analyze and observe space phenomena. While they will not be operational until the 2020’s they may over us valuable or even ground-breaking information. MeerKAT will be the biggest radio telescope to date, able to accurately offer high-definition images of the radio sky and capture the center of our galaxy by using an array of over 2,000 antenna pairs.
Recently, exoplanets which may be able to support life in conditions similar to those found on Earth have also been recently spotted. They orbit stars similar to our sun and are situated at the proper distance to allow the formation of liquid water on the surface. While we have no means to tell if life forms are already present on the surface we will be able in the future.
Researchers believe the rogue planet is quite young, estimating its age at around 200 million years. Earth is comparison formed over 4, 5 billion years ago. Scientists are observing to planet and hope to learn significant information which may help us further understand how such planets form.
As our second lead editor, Anna C. Mackinno provides guidance on the stories Great Lakes Ledger reporters cover. She has been instrumental in making sure the content on the site is clear and accurate for our readers. If you see a particularly clever title, you can likely thank Anna. Anna received a BA and and MA from Fordham University.
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