
Lonely ‘homeless’ planet found for the first time - Mitt
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/science/lonely-homeless-planet-found-for-the-first-time/article4095149.ece
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doctorpangloss
These planetars stoke the scifi imagination. They are the perfect hideaway for
a fleeing civilization... or deadly weapon. What kind of life could exist on a
planet without a star?

Even when the scientific payoff is limited, the payoff to the imagination is
immense.

~~~
jws
In _Passages in the Void_ [1], these planets are the only places the machines
were willing to reincarnate humanity after deciding that stars were too
dangerous, having suffered the anguish of their humans being extinguished by
our own Sun.

[1] A series of short stories by a Roger Williams, tagged _localroger_ on
kuro5hin, wrote back in the day. I gathered the parts together into an ePub
suitable for iBooks. I'm checking with the author now to see if I can make it
available. You can always read it on the kuro5hin site, linked from
<http://localroger.com/> (The _Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect_ is something
else entirely.)

~~~
codewright
Prime Intellect was rough on my psyche, but a good experience.

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scrumper
Looks like it was detected in the infrared. The article is a bit light on
detail, but on the face of it it's an absolutely astonishing achievement to
detect a planet-sized body with an earth-based optical telescope.

~~~
jlgreco
Apparently the atmospheric absorption of infrared is pretty decent for ground-
based observation. Atmospheric seeing in the near-infrared is still a concern
though.

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ComputerGuru
Can someone explain to me how this would be termed a planet?

Doesn't the very definition of planet imply rotation around a star or other
celestial object?

The BBC article is a little better: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-
environment-20309762> And it links to the actual paper:
<http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.0305>

~~~
dalke
There are two "planet" definitions, depending on if the object in question is
in the solar system or outside. The terminology for the later is not as well
settled. You might see "free floating planet" or "rogue planet" or the more
general term "planetary-mass object" (or PMO or planemo). (The actual paper
uses 'free floating planet' and 'planetary-mass object'.)

In any case, if the official position is that a "dwarf planet" is not a planet
then it's not hard to see that a "free floating planet" need not be a
"planet."

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bzalasky
I don't always read pop science, but when I do, I read
thehindubusinessline.com. Also, the illustration paired with the article
screams Melancholia.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Stay skeptical my friend.

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kinkora
If you read the article all the way towards the end, you will see that it's
not exactly "lonely". From the article:

 _The planet is in fact 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 stars 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,” researcher Lison Malo explained._

I find it fascinating that we have identified a group of stars that are (i'm
assuming) moving in synchronous towards a general direction. I can only
theorize that it was caused by perhaps a giant supernova that flung all of
these stars/planets outwards but it does make you wonder what caused it
exactly.

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albertzeyer
It says that the image is a photo. Is that really so?

It says that the planet has a temperature of approx 400 degrees Celsius. That
is hot. I would have expected it to be deadly cold, esp since it never managed
to initiate nuclear reactions in its center. Why is that?

~~~
rpm4321
There's no way that's a photo, given that this is the best we can do of Ceres,
a relatively close planetoid:

[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Ceres_opt...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Ceres_optimized.jpg)

UPDATE: Here's its wikipedia page. 100 light years way from earth, so there is
no way it's a photo. Also, wikipedia calls it a brown dwarf, which would
explain the temperature: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFBDSIR2149-0403>

~~~
martey
The source of the image, an European Southern Observatory press release
(mentioned in the HBL article, linked in the Wikipedia article) gives it a
title of "Artist’s impression of the free-floating planet CFBDSIR
J214947.2-040308.9".

<http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1245/>

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krsunny
Given enough time, I wonder if this planet can gather enough gas and dust to
turn into a star.

~~~
mortenjorck
If its trajectory takes it through a nebula at some point during the
universe's lifespan, I would think it should be possible.

By that time, our species should either be long extinct or have evolved into
vaguely godlike space-beings.

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ichabodcole
Would anyone like to explain why this planet would have a temperature of 400C
(I was picturing it being really cold)? Is this because of its mass/size, more
related to its gaseous composition or both?

~~~
rpm4321
It's a brown dwarf: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFBDSIR2149-0403>

~~~
wcoenen
I think that the news here is that is has been determined that it is _not_ a
brown dwarf. See the paper[1] for more details. Though I'm not sure why the
distinction between giant planet vs cold tiny star is so important.

[1] <http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.0305>

