A team of researchers from the Rochester Institute of Technology has discovered a still - forming substellar object just 330 idle - long time from Earth . This incredible discovery is probable to turn out to be the youngest satellite so tight to the Solar System .
The uranologist estimate that the object is less than 5 million years old , revolve its star at a distance of 600 AU ( 1 AU , or astronomical unit , is the Earth - Sun distance ) . It librate 10 time the mass of Jupiter , put it close to the jumbo planet / browned dwarf boundary of 13 Jupiter masses . The discovery is reported inResearch Notes of the American Astronomical Society .
“ The dim , coolheaded object we constitute is very untested and only 10 times the spate of Jupiter , which means we are likely looking at an infant planet , perhaps still in the midst of formation , ” lead author Annie Dickson - Vandervelde say in astatement . “ Though lots of other planets have been discovered through the Kepler mission and other mission like it , almost all of those are ‘ onetime ’ planet . This is also only the fourth or fifth example of a jumbo major planet so far from its ‘ parent ’ star , and theoretician are struggling to explain how they mould or end up there . ”
The object was discovered thanks to Gaia , a European Space Agency missionary post that ’s working to produce the most elaborate map of the Milky Way yet . The space vehicle is tracking the accurate positions and velocities of over a billion stars , making it an invaluable putz for a myriad of astronomic program .
For this piece of work , researchers used Gaia information to depend for sub - prima target ( planet or brown dwarfs ) within the Epsilon Chamaeleontis Association , a nearby group of new stars . They come up the potential gargantuan major planet because it moves along with the rest period of this grouping , so it is likely to be part of it .
The newly discovered objective deserve a survey - up study to help us better understand its nature , how it formed , and put limits on its real age . Its formation history , in picky , might be fundamental to work out if it is a browned dwarf or a gas monster major planet .
