Using data from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment survey, Polish astronomers have discovered two exoplanets wandering the Milky Way, worlds that do not have stars. The article describing the discovery.
Theories of the formation of planets predict the existence of free-floating worlds ejected from their native systems. They are almost imperceptible, since they emit either little light or are completely invisible, but such wanderers can be detected due to gravitational microlensing events, during which exoplanets distort the light of distant stars.
The discovery of extrasolar worlds is interesting in itself, but these two stand out among the majority and therefore attract particular attention. Unlike almost all previously discovered, they do not rotate around their stars, but plow through the expanses of our Galaxy in complete solitude and darkness.
Given such an exotic method of detection, astronomers do not have the ability to accurately determine either the radius or the mass of rogue planets, since there is no distance to them. But, depending on the distance from the Earth, the mass of the first planet can be from 1.9 to 20 masses of Jupiter, and the second – from 2.3 to 23 Earth masses.
Astronomers who discovered the exiles, do not want to exclude the possibility of life on them. However, without the light and heat of the parent star, this seems highly unlikely.
In any case, the researchers suggest that a huge number of similar lonely planets may be hiding in the Milky Way, and a more detailed survey of our Galaxy with new tools should lead to the discovery of more wandering worlds.
Two exoplanets wandering in complete darkness have been discovered in the Milky Way
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