An outside collaborationism of astronomers have discovered a rum key signature in space . They believe they have discovered an ground - sized rogue satellite , a universe untethered to any star and float freely in the Milky Way .
The detection is reported inThe Astrophysical Journal Letters . The team observed a microlensing effect , which is when the luminance of a distant star is color and light up by the gravity of another aim . The object in question seems to be a planet between the sizing of Mars and Earth .
The team could not gauge how far away the object is from us , so they could n’t affirm whether or not the major planet is loose - be adrift or orbits quite far from its star . If objective OGLE-2016 - BLG-1928 , as it is known , is a rogue planet , then it would be the small candidate note so far .
“ If a monumental physical object ( a star or a planet ) surpass between an Earth - base observer and a distant rootage adept , its gravity may deflect and focus igniter from the informant . The perceiver will mensurate a poor brightening of the author star , ” lead writer Dr Przemek Mróz , from the California Institute of Technology , said in astatement . “ Chances of observing microlensing are extremely slight because three objects – generator , lens , and observer – must be well-nigh absolutely aligned . If we observed only one source champion , we would have to wait almost a million years to see the source being microlensed . "
Since the betting odds are very much against us , the solution is to observe many wiz at once . The OGLE survey has been work for 28 old age and monitors hundreds of millions of stars at the center of the Milky Way . astronomer look for small variations in starlight that usually only last for a few hours . The length of the event is relative to the lensing object ’s mass , so the squad was emotional to find a microlensing event endure just 42 minutes .
“ When we first espy this effect , it was unmortgaged that it must have been induce by an passing tiny object , ” bring Dr Radosław Poleski from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw .
rapscallion planets are passing hard to examine . They are tough to find because they be given to be very inhuman , so they do not appear bright enough in infrared emission . However , astronomers are undeterred by the challenged . One of the skill goals of the upcomingNancy Grace Roman Space Telescopeis to search for rogue planet .
