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It wasn’t too long ago when astronomers thought that solar systems outside our own would be more or less similar to ours — there would be a central sun, with various planets of both rocky and gassy varieties. However, that’s definitely not the case all the time. Today, astronomers have discovered a rogue planet that’s uncommon from other planets like it.

The planet is dubbed CFBDSIR2149, and it’s said to be four to seven times larger than Jupiter, which is our solar system’s largest planet. It also appears to be a “free-floating” planet, meaning that it doesn’t orbit around another sun. Of course, discovering planets like these isn’t rare, but astronomers say that the planet is only 100 light-years away, making it the closest rogue planet to the Earth.

Initial observations coined the planet as either a homeless planet or a tiny failed star called a “brown dwarf,” which lacks the power to trigger the nuclear fusion that makes stars shine. However, the astronomers noted that CFBDSIR2149 is roaming near a stream of young stars called the AB Doradus Moving Group, and that has allowed the astronomers to estimate the planet’s age to between 50 and 120 million years old, with a temperature of around 400 degrees C (750 degrees F).

Philippe Delorme of France’s Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics says that “these objects are important, as they can either help us understand more about how planets may be ejected from planetary systems, or how very light objects can arise from the star formation process.” He continues by noting that if CFBDSIR2149 “is a planet that has been ejected from its native system, it conjures up the striking image of orphaned worlds, drifting in the emptiness of space.”

[via Time]

Rogue planet without sun spotted 100 light-years away is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s taken more than six years of development, but a new imaging system for the Palomar Observatory’s 200-inch Hale Telescope finally started capturing images last month, and promises to aid significantly in the search for planets outside our solar system (otherwise known as exoplanets). With the suitably mysterious name of “Project 1640,” the new instrument is the first of its kind that’s able to directly spot planets orbiting distant suns — as opposed to existing systems that use indirect detection methods to determine the orbit of exoplanets. To do that, Project 1640 effectively blots out the light from stars, which allows astronomers to more clearly observe what might be around them, including objects up to 10 million times fainter than the star itself (the image on the right above is a nearby star captured with the imaging system in place, compared to the same star captured without the new system on the left). Those curious can find more specifics on just how that’s accomplished in the official announcement linked below.

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Project 1640 offers new way to search for planets beyond our solar system originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 20:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Scientists now believe more than ever that Saturn’s largest moon has an underground ocean. The discovery that presents this latest solid evidence is that Titan has been found to warp during its gravitational tides. This is leading science experts to believe that a large body of water slosed around under its outer shell.

It’s long been a hypothesis that Titan, and other moons far in the deep reaches of the solar system, are capable of holding water underneath their surfaces, but the lack of technology makes it impossible to test these theories. There is however a spacecraft called Cassini, which has been in the Saturn area since 2004. It is the primary source in providing new information about the planet and its moons.

“Liquid water elsewhere in the solar system is one of the main goals of planetary exploration for NASA,” said study lead author Luciano Iess, a planetary geodesist at Università La Sapienza in Rome. “This discovery points to the fact that many satellites in the outer solar system hide large amounts of liquid water,” said planetary geodesis and lead author of the latest study Luciano Iess.

[via MSNBC]

Saturn Titan moon ocean hypothesis strengthens is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.