Jakarta –
‘s Kepler telescope NASA detect there the wandering planet mysterious in space. They are called wandering planets because, unlike other planets, they do not orbit any stars.
With a technique known as gravitational microlensing, four such planets were discovered, with masses similar to Earth. The planet may have orbited a star, but was ejected by the pull of another, heavier planet.
The star may still shine, but the number of orbiting planets is shrinking. “They are close to the center of our galaxy. So they are probably thousands of light years away,” said Professor Ian McDonald, an astronomer from the University of Manchester.
As quoted detikINET from the Daily Mail, it is not yet known as to what it exists the wandering planet that, but likely consists of rocks and frozen oceans.
“If a planet like Earth were thrown into deep space, away from the heat of the star, we would expect the oceans to freeze and the atmosphere to condense. Life might still exist, but only in locations like hydrothermal vents where there are other sources of energy,” McDonald said.
The study of this wandering planet will be carried out by the next generation of telescopes considering that Kepler has been retired by NASA. NASA will launch the Nancy Garce Space Telescope to detect it.
“Kepler has done what it’s not supposed to do, in providing tentative evidence for the existence of a wandering Earth-like population of planets,” said Eamon Kerins, a space researcher at the University of Manchester.
Wandering planets are very difficult to detect even though they may actually be very numerous in space.
“This universe can be abundant with the wandering planet and we don’t know anything about it,” said astronomer Scott Gaudi of Ohio State University.
Watch Videos”NASA Plans New Mission to Planet Venus“
[Gambas:Video 20detik]
(fyk / fyk)
– .
