Astronomers were able to take images of a free-floating planet in the galaxy which is only 100 light years away using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile along with the Canada-France-Hawaii (CFH) Telescope in Hawaii.
The alien planet is named CFBDSIR2149 and believed to be homeless because it does not orbit around any star. It's up to seven times the size of Jupiter and has no gravitational pull. It's estimated to be 50 to 120 million years old. Since it does not have an orbit the ESO said it seems to be moving along with a group of young stars known as AB Doradus Moving Group. Researchers said the temperature of the planet is at an average of 806 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degree C).
"This is the first isolated planetary mass object ever identified in a moving group, and the association with this group makes it the most interesting free-floating planet candidate identified so far," the ESO said.
Philippe Delorme of France's Institut de planétologie et d'astrophysique de Grenoble, CNRS and Université Joseph Fourier, study lead author said the observations can help in understanding these planets in a better way.
"Looking for planets around their stars is akin to studying a firefly sitting one centimetre away from a distant, powerful car headlight," Delorme said. "This nearby free-floating object offered the opportunity to study the firefly in detail without the dazzling lights of the car messing everything up. This object could be used as a benchmark for understanding the physics of any similar exoplanets that are discovered."
Étienne Artigau, an astrophysicist at UdeM, described the planet as very huge, as much as 1000 times the surface of the full moon and it is the first of a kind.
"Although theorists had established the existence of this type of very cold and young planet, one had never been observed until today," Artigau said. "Now we will be looking for them amongst an astronomical number of sources further afield. It's like looking for a single needle in amongst thousands of haystacks."
