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.
Many things are taking place:
First Habitable-Zone, Earth-Sized Exoplanet Discovered With Planet-Hunter TESS
TOI 700, a planetary system 100 light-years away in the constellation Dorado, is home to TOI 700 d, the first Earth-size habitable-zone planet discovered by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
This illustration of TOI 700 d is based on several simulated environments for an ocean-covered version of the planet. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
A schematic of the planets around the nearby M dwarf star TOI-700, discovered by TESS. The third (the farthest planet from the star), TOI-700d, lies within the star’s habitable zone (shown in green). Using the IRAC camera on Spitzer, the team refined the planet’s mass as 2.1 Earth-masses and 1.14 Earth-radii. (The scale shows 0.2 astronomical units; AU being the average Earth-Sun distance.) Credit: Rodriguez et al 2020
Search for New Worlds at Home With NASA's Planet Patrol Project | NASA
The Atmosphere On A Hot Neptune LTT 9779b Shouldn't Exist - SpaceRef
A team led by an astronomer from the University of Kansas has crunched data from NASA's TESS and Spitzer space telescopes to portray for the first time the atmosphere of a highly unusual kind of exoplanet dubbed a "hot Neptune."
The findings concerning the recently found planet LTT 9779b were published today in Astrophysical Journal Letters. The paper details the very first spectral atmospheric characterization of any planet discovered by TESS, the first global temperature map of any TESS planet with an atmosphere and a hot Neptune whose emission spectrum is fundamentally different from the many larger "hot Jupiters" previously studied.
This may worth something:
Early onset of planet formation observed in a nascent star system
What is interesting is how different these features look from those found in older disks: the rings are quite shallow, and very difficult to pick out, in contrast to the prominent features found in older disks. A much larger set of observations of young disks is needed to see whether this is typical, but if it is, it could provide important clues about the planet-formation process and when it begins. Young planets might be expected to carve out large gaps, so perhaps Segura-Cox et al .
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Andrews, S. M. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys . https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-astro-031220-010302 (2020).
Stars and planets grow up together as siblings: Study : The Tribune India
In a unique study, astronomers have found compelling evidence that the planets begin forming while stars are still infants and they grow up together like siblings.
The high-resolution image obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) shows a young proto-stellar disk with multiple gaps and rings of dust.
This new result, published in the journal Nature , shows the youngest and most detailed example of dust rings acting as cosmic cradles, where the seeds of planets form and take hold.
How We Change the Earth: Human Transformations on the Planet as Seen from Above | ArchDaily
Human impacts on Earth are a common issue nowadays, and many people say that there is no turning back. Climate crisis , greenhouse gases, exploitation of natural resources, production of solid waste and atmospheric pollution are some of the most pressing issues that the global community must address if we want to ensure a sound future for the next generations.
These topics can be viewed in full-color and high-definition in the new book Overview Timelapse: How We Change the Earth , by Benjamin Grant and Timothy Dougherty, which compiles 250 satellite and drone photographs of places on Earth that are in constant transformation.
Exploring the source of stars and planets in a laboratory -- ScienceDaily
A new method for verifying a widely held but unproven theoretical explanation of the formation of stars and planets has been proposed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). The method grows from simulation of the Princeton Magnetorotational Instability (MRI) Experiment, a unique laboratory device that aims to demonstrate the MRI process that is believed to have filled the cosmos with celestial bodies.
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The novel device, designed to duplicate the process that causes swirling clouds of cosmic dust and plasma to collapse into stars and planets, consists of two fluid-filled concentric cylinders that rotate at different speeds. The device seeks to replicate the instabilities that are thought to cause the swirling clouds to gradually shed what is called their angular momentum and collapse into the growing bodies that they orbit.
Happening on Twitter
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
Dear free-floating rogue planet, Welcome to our galaxy. via @sciam https://t.co/uxKSlrAJak novapbs Thu Oct 22 01:07:00 +0000 2020
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