![]() HIP 65426 b is only 10-20 million years old, far younger than the 4.5bn-year-old Earth, and the latest observations give new insights into how Jupiter and Saturn may have looked in their infancy. found the largest collection of free-floating rogue planets ever discovered. “The best wavelength to observe a planet is the one at which it produces the most intrinsic light because this is directly tied to the temperature of the planet,” said Dr Beth Biller, a co-principal investigator and an astronomer at the University of Edinburgh. Using the Canada-France-Hawaii and Gemini North telescopes on Maunakea. Even though Saturns average distance from the Sun is. The results include four new discoveries that are consistent with planets of similar masses to Earth, published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Water has a density of 1 g/cm3 so Saturn would float if there was a water body big enough to hold it. By contrast, the latest images, captured from the cold, airless environment of space, span a wide range of wavelengths, including the infrared, which accounts for most of the light produced in the planet’s atmosphere. Tantalising evidence has been uncovered for a mysterious population of free-floating planets, planets that may be alone in deep space, unbound to any host star. But this meant contending with noise introduced by the Earth’s atmosphere and restricted observations to a narrow range of visible wavelengths. Previously, astronomers have obtained direct images of 20 or so exoplanets, including HIP 65426 b, using ground-based telescopes. Tantalising evidence has been uncovered for a mysterious population of free-floating planets, planets that may be alone in deep space, unbound to any host. ![]() “You’d be roasted alive if you could float around in the atmosphere.” “It would be a terrible place to live,” said Hinkley. The latest observations put the planet’s atmospheric temperature at roughly 1,300C (2,370F) and suggest its atmosphere contains red-hued clouds of silicate dust. Kepler telescope glimpses population of free-floating planets 6 July 2021 Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Tantalizing evidence has been uncovered for a mysterious population of 'free-floating. But is still more than 10,000 times fainter than its host star – the equivalent of trying to spot a firefly next to a large lighthouse from more than 50 miles away. It is about 100 times further from its host star than Earth is from the sun, making it easier to distinguish. Telescope glimpses are a special kind of mirror: they reflect light from their surroundings. The focus of the latest observations, HIP 65426 b, is a gas giant about five to 10 times the mass of Jupiter located 385 light-years from Earth in the Centaurus constellation. ![]() “We will be able to detect the presence of weather.”ĭirectly imaging exoplanets is a huge technical challenge because the host star is so much brighter. “James Webb is going to open the door to a whole new class of planets that have been completely out of reach to us and by observing them at a broad range of wavelengths we can study their compositions in a much more in-depth way. “This is really a historic moment for astronomy,” said Prof Sasha Hinkley, an astronomer based at the University of Exeter, who co-led the observations.
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