Multicolor image from the Pan-STARRS1 telescope of the free-floating planet PSO J318.5-22, in the constellation of Capricornus. The planet is extremely cold and faint, about 100 billion times fainter in optical light than the planet Venus. Most of its energy is emitted at infrared wavelengths. The image is 125 arcseconds on a side. Credit: N. Metcalfe & Pan-STARRS 1 Science Consortium University of Hawaii
A directly imaged orphan planet!
From the Institute for Astronomy University of Hawaii
An international team of astronomers has discovered a young planet that is not orbiting a star. It was identified from its faint and unique heat signature by the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) wide-field survey telescope on Haleakala, Maui.
In a news release issued by the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, team leader Michael Liu of the IfA, said: “We have never before seen an object free-floating in space that looks like this. It has all the characteristics of young planets found around other stars, but it is drifting out there all alone.” He added, “I had often wondered if such solitary objects exist, and now we know they do.”