Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.
NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite may have discovered its first free-floating, or"orphaned," planet. That's a planet roaming the cosmos without a star, all alone.Despite the fact that we're most familiar with planets that orbit a parent star after discovering over 5,000In fact, our galaxy may contain as many as a quadrillion rogue planets that have been ejected from their home systems by.
Without a parent star, however, neither of these methods apply. That's what makes detecting rogue planets so difficult. The gravity of a free-floating"rogue" planet may deflect and focus light from a distant star when passing closely in front of it. Owing to the distorted image, the star temporarily seems much brighter.As the"T" for transit in TESS suggests, this space telescope may not immediately seem like the right instrument to hunt for rogue planets. are the 'dimmings' of the star caused by a planet passing in front of it, like what you might have seen in the recent eclipse.
An illustration shows a cold orphan rogue planet covered in ice due to the lack of a parent star and lacking any light output of its own.
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