Wandering planet PSO J318.5-22

[Brian G Turner]

Astronomical object PSO J318.5-22 has been identified as a wandering planet, moving through space without a corresponding star.

Here's the press release from the Institute for Astronomy at Hawaii University:
https://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/LonelyPlanet/

Because it has a mass of six-times Jupiter, it's possible that in future it may be re-classified as a "failed star" rather than "wandering planet".

Either way, it's still fascinating to see this discussion finally arise - been waiting for this for some years.

In the meantime, here's the report on Sci-news.com:
http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/science-free-floating-exoplanet-01450.html

And for more context on PSO J318.5-22, here's the Wikipedia page about Beta Pictoris, the group that it belongs to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Pictoris_moving_group

 

[BAYLOR]

Six times jupiter Mass? Now that is a big planet. If an object that sized passed through our solar system can you imagine the resulting disruption that could occur?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Six times jupiter Mass

Close to minimum star size, hence "failed star" moniker

 

[Parson]

Do you suspect that we will have an apocalypse story with this being the event? It is hard to imagine a realistic level of technology which could detect and redirect such an interloper.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

It is hard to imagine a realistic level of technology which could detect and redirect such an interloper.

Detection and maybe a 1000 years advance warning easy.
We probably can't redirect a comet or meteor of small size. Not even if we clone Bruce Willis. A load of hydrogen bombs would simply mean the Earth getting devastated with small chunks instead of a big lump. So forget about something even the size of our moon.

 

[Parson]

Detection and maybe a 1000 years advance warning easy.

I'm assuming that you mean that "you would need a 1000 years warning to begin to be able to do something." I can't imagine a technology where directing a near sun would be "easy."

 

[Brian G Turner]

Do you suspect that we will have an apocalypse story with this being the event? It is hard to imagine a realistic level of technology which could detect and redirect such an interloper.

There's long been a theory that a brown dwarf might be in an extreme eliptical orbit around our sun - usually referred to as Planet X, or Nemesis. There's a previous thread on that here:
https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/204/

 

[Ursa major]

There was also a story earlier this year suggesting that a roaming star had passed through the solar system's Oort cloud 70,000 years ago:

Scholz’s star passed only 0.8 light-years from our sun, only 70,000 years ago. It came closer than any other known star, sweeping through the Oort comet cloud.

Astronomers announced this week – February 16, 2015 – that they’ve now identified the closest known flyby of a star, really two stars, to our solar system. The culprit is a binary system consisting of a low-mass red dwarf star (with a mass about 8% that of our sun) and a brown dwarf companion (with a mass about 6% that of the sun). This pair passed through our solar system’s outer Oort comet cloud some 70,000 years ago.

[...]

The astronomers say they are 98% certain that Scholz’s star swept through the outer Oort Cloud – a region at the edge of the solar system filled with trillions of comets a mile or more across. This, then, is an example of that passing star we’ve all heard about for decades, thought to give rise to long-period comets, those that take longer than about 200 years to orbit the sun, which we observe from time to time plummeting in toward the sun that binds them in orbit.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I'm assuming that you mean that "you would need a 1000 years warning

no, I mean you'd have maybe a 1000 years warning, lots of advance warning anyway, but there is nothing that can be done to stop it. Evacuation is impossible too.

 

[BAYLOR]

Detection and maybe a 1000 years advance warning easy.
We probably can't redirect a comet or meteor of small size. Not even if we clone Bruce Willis. A load of hydrogen bombs would simply mean the Earth getting devastated with small chunks instead of a big lump. So forget about something even the size of our moon.

Is it heading toward us ?

 

[J Riff]

Free floating is not really possible, it has to be locked in to the rotation of the galaxy, but just being able to identify planets like this at all, is mighty impressive. What lives there? Big things!

 

[BAYLOR]

Free floating is not really possible, it has to be locked in to the rotation of the galaxy, but just being able to identify planets like this at all, is mighty impressive. What lives there? Big things!

Ultimately, it will get by a star and fall into orbit.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Or get swallowed by a black hole*, or form a binary system ... many possibilities

[*which can take a million years, I saw an article a few days ago on a star being striped into a black hole]

 

[Ray Pullar]

Do you suspect that we will have an apocalypse story with this being the event? It is hard to imagine a realistic level of technology which could detect and redirect such an interloper.

One already exists: When Worlds collide (1951).

 

[Parson]

Interesting. I should have guessed that someone, somewhere had done it. The cover of a space ship shooting lazers at the colliding planets makes me think that scientific thought was not a primary thought in the making of the movie.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

makes me think that scientific thought was not a primary thought in the making of the movie.

ROFL
We are lucky if they consider science at all in Cinema.

 

[BAYLOR]

Six times the mass of Jupiter and it hasn't ignited into a star?

 

[Ursa major]

Six times the mass of Jupiter and it hasn't ignited into a star?

When it comes to becoming a star, it just doesn't... er... match the criteria.

 

[BAYLOR]

When it comes to becoming a star, it just doesn't... er... match the criteria.

I seem to recall reading that if Jupiter had been twice as massive , it would have ignited into a star . This object is 6 times more massive then Jupiter.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I seem to recall reading that if Jupiter had been twice as massive , it would have ignited into a star . This object is 6 times more massive then Jupiter.

Yes - I keep reading conflicting statements like these. Makes me think there's a lack of consistency there.