Astronomers have weighed a wandering rogue planet uncovering a Saturn mass world flung into galaxy after dramatic planetary breakup.

A latest study reports that astronomers have measured both mass and distance of new found free floating planet by observing it at the same time from Earth and from space.

This rare combination of viewpoints made it possible to pin down details that usually remain out of reach.

The results shed light on many ways planets can be expelled from home systems and sent drifting through interstellar space.

Only small number of free floating planets have been identified so far researchers expect discoveries to accelerate in near future specially with NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope campaign schedule to launch in 2027.

Rogue Planets and a Subtle Signal

Most planet orbit one or more stars but growing evidence shows that some worlds travel through galaxy alone.

These solitary objects famous as free floating or rogue planets have no known stellar partner.

They give off very little light astronomers usually detect them only when their gravity bend and amplifies the light of distant background star.

This effect is called microlensing.

A major drawback of microlensing is that if typically does not reveal how far away from planet is which makes it difficult to decide its mass on its own.

Many properties of these wandering planets have remained uncertain.

A Rare Earth and Space Collaboration

In latest research Subo Dong and colleagues describe the discovery of free floating planet spotted during short lived microlensing event,

This case apart was that event was observe from Earth and from space.

The team combined data from several ground based surveys with observations from Gala Space telescope.

Small differences in timing of light signal reaching these widely separated locations allowed the scientist to calculate the microlensing parallax.

This measurement was paired with finite source point lens modeling the researchers were able to decide both planet mass and position in galaxy.

The planet is about 22 percent the mass of Jupiter and located almost 3000 parsecs from center of Milky Way.

With mass similar to Saturn the researchers argue that it most formed as part of planetary system rather than developing on its own like small star or brown dwarf.

Scientist think that low mass rogue planet like this one are born around stars and later thrown out of original orbits by gravitational disturbances like close encounters with other planets.

References

A free floating planet microlensing event caused by Saturn mass object by Subo Dong, Zexuan Wu, Yoon Hyun Ryun