Not all planets orbit stars. Some are instead “free-floating” rogues adrift in interstellar space after being ejected from their home systems. For decades astronomers have sought to study such elusive outcasts, hoping to find patterns in their size and number that could reveal otherwise hidden details of how planetary systems emerge and evolve.
Of the handful known so far, most free floaters have been massive gas giants, but now researchers may have found one small enough to be rocky—smaller even than Earth. If its rogue status is confirmed, the roughly Mars-to-Earth-mass object would be the most diminutive free-floating planet ever seen. Yet finding such small worlds could soon become routine, thanks to NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope , set to launch in the mid-2020s.
This may worth something:
Stellar clustering shapes the architecture of planetary systems | Nature
The Gaia data used in this work are publicly available through the Gaia archive ( https://gea.esac.esa.int/archive/ ). The exoplanetary catalogue used in this work is publicly available through the NASA Exoplanet Archive ( https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/ ). Results of the calculations performed as part of this work are either available in the Supplementary Information, or from the authors upon request.
The code used for the phase space decomposition is publicly available at https://github.com/ajw278/astrophasesplit .
NO EARLY GENERATION OF PLANETS | SETI Institute
Tiny diamonds found in exotic stony meteorites called "ureilites" were recently proposed to have formed much like diamonds on Earth: from graphite deep inside a planetary body where pressures are high enough to change the crystal structure from graphite to diamond over long periods of time. To grow 100 micron diamonds, it was thought that pressures larger than 20 GPa (Giga Pascals) were needed.
Now, in a paper published in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), a group of researchers led by Fabrizio Nestola (University of Padova, Italy) and Cyrena Goodrich (Universities Space Research Association at the Lunar and Planetary Institute), report that a shock wave from a big but fairly common planetary collision in the early solar system can do the same.
We use the Transit Method to Find other Planets.
Most of the exoplanets we’ve discovered have been found by the transit method. This is where the planet passes between its star and our view from Earth, blocking some of the starlight. As the planet passes by, the star dims slightly. From this periodic dimming, we know the planet exists. There are other ways to find exoplanets, such as the Doppler method, but the transit method is the easiest.
Unfortunately, the transit method only works if the orbit of the planet is oriented just so. If it is tilted slightly relative to us so that the planet passes above or below the star from our vantage point, then we will never know it’s there. Another challenge is that Earth is a small world compared to the Sun. Seen from a distant star, Jupiter would only block about 1% of the Sun’s light when it transits. But that would be 100 times more than the amount blocked by Earth.
Quite a lot has been going on:
AI-powered sensor measures starlight distortion to help detect new planets
Sydney University scientists have invented a sensor that neutralizes a star's twinkle, which could help astronomers find new planets in distant solar systems.
The sensor uses an advanced light convertor and AI to measure and correct the distortion of starlight caused by the Earth's atmosphere. It will now be installed on the 8.2m Subaru telescope on the summit of Maunakea, Hawaii, one of the largest optical-infrared telescopes in the world.
"The main way we identify planets orbiting distant stars is by measuring regular dips in starlight caused by planets blocking out bits of their sun," said study lead author Dr Barnaby Norris in a statement.
NASA Spacecraft Spots a Massive, Ancient Planet With a Knack for Survival | KQED
A NASA satellite known as TESS may have discovered a massive extrasolar planet twice as old as any planet in our solar system. While astronomers need to conduct more observations to confirm the planet exists, this gas giant world , named WD 1856 b and located 80 light years away in the constellation Draco, appears to be 14 times more massive than Jupiter, and around 10 billion years old.
But WD 1856 b ’s size and age are not what make it most fascinating to scientists.
Azure Space – cloud-powered innovation on and off the planet - The Official Microsoft Blog
Today, Microsoft is taking the next giant leap in cloud computing – to space. I am excited to share the work we are doing to make Azure the platform and ecosystem of choice for the mission needs of the space community with Azure Space . The space community is growing rapidly and innovation is lowering the barriers of access for public- and private-sector organizations.
We have brought together a team of renowned space industry veterans to work alongside our world-class product engineers and scientists to build cloud capabilities that meet the unique needs of space. Our innovation areas include simulating space missions, discovering insights from satellite data, and fueling innovation both on the ground and in orbit.
There's Nothing Sacred about Nine Justices; a Livable Planet, on the Other Hand . . .
Abbie Dillen is the president of EarthJustice, the country's most important nonprofit environmental-law firm. In her twenty years there, she's gone to court to protect wolves and grizzly bears and to close down dirty coal plants.
The courts have served as a bulwark against the worst environmental excesses of the Trump Administration, but, as the President's appointments to the federal bench pile up, is that bulwark beginning to crumble?
That said, stacking the courts with Federalist Society picks that are hostile to government protections is bad for the planet. The impact will become more apparent as soon as there is strong federal action on the climate crisis, entrenched environmental injustice, and biodiversity collapse. At that point, polluting industries will be going to court to challenge government action, and they will want to make their cases before Trump-appointed judges.
Happening on Twitter
Dear free-floating rogue planet, Welcome to our galaxy. via @sciam https://t.co/uxKSlrAJak novapbs Thu Oct 22 01:07:00 +0000 2020
Rogue rocky planet found adrift in the Milky Way https://t.co/nTgNFATVM6 https://t.co/Y63sMFh07e sciam (from New York City) Mon Oct 19 15:06:58 +0000 2020
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