The abundance of protoplanetary bodies ejected from their parent star system is presently poorly-constrained. With only two existing optical observations of interstellar objects in the 108−1010 kg mass range and […]
Free-floating planets
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Neptune, Status Report
Terrestrial And Neptune Mass Free-floating Planet Candidates From The MOA-II 9-year Galactic Bulge Survey
We report the discoveries of low-mass free-floating planet (FFP) candidates from the analysis of 2006-2014 MOA-II Galactic bulge survey data.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Free-floating or wide-orbit? Keck Adaptive-optics Observations Reveal No Host Stars Near Free-Floating Planet Candidates
Recent detections of extremely short-timescale microlensing events imply the existence of a large population of Earth- to Neptune-mass planets that appear to have no host stars.
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Habitable Moons Orbiting Free-Flying Planets
Liquid water is one of the most important conditions for the emergence of life as we know it on earth. Researchers from the ORIGINS cluster from the fields of astrophysics, […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report
Free-Floating Planet Mass Function from MOA-II 9-year Survey Towards The Galactic Bulge
We present the first measurement of the mass function of free-floating planets (FFP) or very wide orbit planets down to an Earth mass, based on microlensing data from the MOA-II […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Presence Of Liquid Water During The Evolution Of Exomoons Orbiting Ejected Free-floating Planets
Free-floating planets (FFPs) can result from dynamical scattering processes happening in the first few million years of a planetary system’s life.