In space, each planets have stars and the planets orbit them. But lately some astronomers of Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have found a planet called PSO J318.5-22 which has no star, meaning no option to orbit a star.
According to astronomers, the PSO J318.5-22 is a gaseous exoplanet. It is a lonely planet outside the solar system floating alone in space and not orbiting a star. It is 12 million years old and is 80 light years from Earth. The planet has a mass only six times that of Jupiter. The researchers think PSO J318.5-22 might be a planet along with the lowest mass of all known freely floating objects.
Michael Liu, research team leader of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa said, “We have never before seen an object free-floating in space that looks like this. It has all the characteristics of young planets found around other stars, but it is drifting out there all alone. I had often wondered if such solitary objects exist, and now we know they do.”
Niall Deacon, another researchers said that PSO J318.5-22 “is going to provide a wonderful view into the inner workings of gas-giant planets like Jupiter.”
The researchers study has been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Source: Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii
Thanks To: Daily Mail
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