Oct 2, 2025 05:41 PM
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1100362
INTRO: A young rogue planet about 620 light-years away from Earth has experienced a record-breaking “growth spurt,” hoovering up some six billion tons of gas and dust each second over a couple of months.
A team of international researchers have explored changes in the planet’s growth and immediate surroundings. The observations provide insight into how rogue planets—free-floating planetary-mass objects that do not orbit stars—behave and grow in their infancy.
“We’ve caught this newborn rogue planet in the act of gobbling up stuff at a furious pace,” said senior co-author and Johns Hopkins Provost and Professor Ray Jayawardhana. “Monitoring its behavior over the past few months, with two of the most powerful telescopes on the ground and in space, we have captured a rare glimpse into the baby phase of isolated objects not much heftier than Jupiter.”
Jayawardhana added: “Their infancy appears to be much more tumultuous than we had realized.”
The findings were accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and are available online... (MORE - details, no ads)
INTRO: A young rogue planet about 620 light-years away from Earth has experienced a record-breaking “growth spurt,” hoovering up some six billion tons of gas and dust each second over a couple of months.
A team of international researchers have explored changes in the planet’s growth and immediate surroundings. The observations provide insight into how rogue planets—free-floating planetary-mass objects that do not orbit stars—behave and grow in their infancy.
“We’ve caught this newborn rogue planet in the act of gobbling up stuff at a furious pace,” said senior co-author and Johns Hopkins Provost and Professor Ray Jayawardhana. “Monitoring its behavior over the past few months, with two of the most powerful telescopes on the ground and in space, we have captured a rare glimpse into the baby phase of isolated objects not much heftier than Jupiter.”
Jayawardhana added: “Their infancy appears to be much more tumultuous than we had realized.”
The findings were accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and are available online... (MORE - details, no ads)