National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) researchers may find clues as to how lone planets are formed in the galaxy through the newly discovered brown dwarf seen free-floating in the deep space.
Named WISEA 1147, the planetary mass was spotted by NASA scientists using its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) within a young stellar family, TW Hydrae association.
Since the galaxy is teeming with free-floating planets, with some of them yet to be discovered, scientists believe that these lone planets could outnumber the stars of the Milky Way.
The question still remains - how are they formed?
The young free-floating world, about only 10 million years old, has a mass that is five to 10 times than that of Jupiter and is believed to be a brown dwarf. Since it is in its early years, astronomers said that continued monitoring will give an insight as to its history - whether its formation indeed occurred in isolation or not.
Accurately identifying brown dwarfs is a big challenge for astronomers because they are often isolated. WISEA 1147 was found by the astronomers while sifting through images taken by 2MASS and WISE. It registered a brilliantly red image suggesting it is dusty and young.
WISEA 1147 is among the youngest and lowest-mass brown dwarfs to date.
Lone planets are of particular interest to astronomers because of its resemblance to planets and ease of study. Exoplanets adjacent to bright stars are almost impossible to study, but with brown dwarfs like WISEA 1147 that has no parent star, studying weather patterns and compositions are easier.
"We can understand exoplanets better by studying young and glowing low-mass brown dwarfs," said Adam Schneider of the University of Toledo and author of the study.
In January, scientists discovered a lonely exoplanet that orbits 600 million miles away from its host star.
Co-author Davy Kirkpatrick of NASA's Infrared Processing Analysis Center (IPAC) at the California Institute of Technology said they are still in the process of determining the landscape of free-floating population and identifying how many planets are present compared to brown dwarfs.
