Monday, October 6, 2025

Rogue Proto-Planet Observed Devouring Billions Of Tons Of Dust And Gas Per Second

According to Popular Science via Yahoo News:

In the vast expanse of space, a rogue proto-planet, designated as Cha 1107-7626, has been observed devouring an astonishing 6. 6 billion tons of dust and gas per second, approximately 620 light-years from Earth in the Chamaeleon constellation. This gigantic, relatively new resident of the cosmos shows no signs of slowing down, and its growth rate has accelerated rapidly, with measurements indicating an accretion rate eight times larger than initial assessments.

Cha 1107-7626, a planetary-mass object, is already 5 to 10 times the mass of Jupiter and is surrounded by a swirling disk of gas and dust. As gravity forces the debris inward, it accumulates through a process known as accretion. The young object's remarkable accretion rate has been monitored by astronomers Aleks Scholz and Victor Almendros-Abad, who utilized both the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to track its growth.

The origin of rogue planets, like Cha 1107-7626, --- a topic of debate among astronomers. According to Scholz, "The origin of rogue planets --- an open question: are they the lowest-mass objects formed like stars, ← →

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About 620 light-years from Earth, a gigantic rogue proto-planet is currently devouring 6.6 billion tons of dust and gas per second.
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