Lonely planet in space: Astronomers spot rogue planet the size of Saturn | - The Times of India
Astronomers have spotted something unusual, a planet that doesn’t orbit any star. It’s just drifting alone through space. About the size of Saturn, this planet is giving scientists a rare peek at planets that roam the galaxy on their own.What is a free-floating planet?Most planets, like Earth or Mars, orbit stars. Free-floating planets, or rogue planets as they’re sometimes called, are different. They wander through space with no star holding them in place. That makes them tricky to spot, because they barely shine at all.To find them, scientists use a technique called microlensing. In simple terms, the planet’s gravity bends the light from a star behind it ever so slightly. By carefully watching those tiny changes, astronomers can pick out a lone planet hiding in the darkness.How this planet was foundAs mentioned in a report by NDTV, this one was discovered by a team led by Subho Dong at Peking University and the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. They noticed it during a very short microlensing event, so quick it could’ve been easy to miss.What’s neat is that observations came from both Earth and the Gaia Space Telescope, which is almost a million miles away. According to the report, by comparing the tiny differences in how long light took to reach each location, researchers could figure out the planet’s mass and distance. Ground-based surveys helped confirm the results.Size and locationThe planet has roughly 22 percent of Jupiter’s mass, which puts it near Saturn in size. It’s about 3,000 parsecs from the center of the Milky Way, as per the NDTV report.Because of its mass, scientists think it likely formed around a star, then got kicked out, maybe by another planet nearby or a companion star. Basically, it’s a planet without a home now.Why it mattersFinding free-floating planets like this helps us understand how planets form and move around in our galaxy. These rogue worlds are still some of the least understood objects in space. Every new discovery adds a bit more to the bigger picture, showing just how diverse planets can be out there, beyond our solar system, far from the sun.Thumb image: Canva (for representative purposes only)
