A planet that is not orbiting a star, effectively making it homless, has been discovered by a team of University of Montreal (UdeM) researchers. Free-floating planets are planetary-mass objects that have no gravitational link to a star.
The planet is called CFBDSIR2149 and appears to be part of a group of very young stars known as the AB Doradus Moving Group.
This group is unique in that it is made up of around thirty starts that all have the same age, have the same composition and that move together through Space. It's the link between the planet and AB Doradus that enabled us to deduce its age and classify it as a planet. As an aside, it is interesting to note the signifiance of the finding in terms of the roots of the word "planet."
"Planet as a word originates from the Latin word planetus, which originally comes from the Greek words planeta or planetes, meaning moving or wandering celestial bodies, as opposed to stars which appeared to be in a fixed position in the sky," said Oliver Hernandez, an astrophysicist at UdeM.
In short, this is the first isolated planet - perhaps flung away during its formation- that is not tied by gravity to a star and whose mass, temperature and age meet the relevant criteria.
This group is unique in that it is made up of around thirty starts that all have the same age, have the same composition and that move together through Space. It's the link between the planet and AB Doradus that enabled us to deduce its age and classify it as a planet. As an aside, it is interesting to note the signifiance of the finding in terms of the roots of the word "planet."
"Planet as a word originates from the Latin word planetus, which originally comes from the Greek words planeta or planetes, meaning moving or wandering celestial bodies, as opposed to stars which appeared to be in a fixed position in the sky," said Oliver Hernandez, an astrophysicist at UdeM.
In short, this is the first isolated planet - perhaps flung away during its formation- that is not tied by gravity to a star and whose mass, temperature and age meet the relevant criteria.
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