Astronomers discover new free floating planets

For the planets, we first think of our earth and other globular bodies of our solar system, moving in a fixed orbit around the sun. And we are thinking of all those planets that revolve around other stars in other planetary systems of the universe. But for several years it has been known that there are also planets floating very lonely through the theme of space.

Disclosure with the Polish OGLE project

Astronomers in Warsaw have now discovered two new free floating planets as part of an optical gravity experimental line experiment (OGLE). As it is evident from the Digital Trends technology portal, Polish scientists have identified extremely difficult to find "dishonest planets" using the so-called "gravitational effect of microlens".

They only perceive distorted light

The background is that no lone stars irradiate planets traveling through the universe. They are therefore extremely dark and are therefore difficult to find. However, in the "gravitational effect of microlens," astronomers make use of the fact that a free floating planet that passes from a star, as seen from Earth, distorts the light of this star. Using the "microlens gravity" method, it is possible to measure the distorted light and to estimate the size of the planet that takes place at least approximately.

Up to 20 times the size of Jupiter

According to the Polish research project OGLE, in which two planets were discovered, the celestial bodies were named OGLE-2017-BLG-0560 and OGLE-2012-BLG-1323.

The first celestial body was discovered in April 2017 and is expected to have between 1 and 20 masses of Jupiter. His discovery was invoked by astronomers from Warsaw to take a closer look at older research data. They discovered the second floating planet, the size of which should lie between the ground of our Earth and the fourth largest planet of our solar system, Neptune. The results of the findings were published on the arXiv science portal.

Potential billions of "Freischweber"

So far, international science has come from a handful of well-known free planets. Well-known American astrophysic Neil DeGrasse Tyson suspects that there are billions in the universe. One explanation of their occurrence is the so-called catapult effect, according to which "free floats" are excluded from the planetary system. However, some astronomers believe that this effect does not occur frequently enough to explain the assumed large number of free floating planets in space.

Two theories of origin

Another explanation is that these planets are made of materials that are introduced into the universe by the so-called supernovae – explosions of stars at the end of their lives. According to the astronomer, free floating planets can be composed of gas, such as the largest planet of the solar system Jupiter or rock masses. However, science presently assumes that most of the "rocky" rocks are our country.

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