{"id":383335,"date":"2026-01-02T10:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T10:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/383335\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T10:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T10:50:07","slug":"scientists-just-clocked-a-rogue-planet-the-size-of-saturn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/383335\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Just Clocked a \u2018Rogue\u2019 Planet the Size of Saturn"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we imagine a planet, we think of one like ours, orbiting a star. But some have a far lonelier existence, drifting through interstellar space without a sun to call their own. Known as \u201crogue\u201d or \u201cfree-floating\u201d planets<\/a>, these worlds are often challenging to study. With no known star and no orbit from which to estimate their size, they\u2019ve generally flown under the radar<\/a>\u2014until now.<\/p>\n

In a new study published<\/a> in Science on Thursday, scientists show how they measured the mass of one such rogue planet for the first time\u2014a breakthrough that could enable further studies of these strange lonely worlds.<\/p>\n

Instead of looking at the planet\u2019s orbit, the research team, led by Subo Dong of Peking University, instead analyzed how the planet\u2019s gravity bent the light from a distant star, in a so-called microlensing event, from two separate vantage points: Earth and the now-retired Gaia space observatory.<\/p>\n

On supporting science journalism<\/p>\n

If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing<\/a>. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n

The technique resembles how our eyes\u2019 depth perception works, Dong says: the microlensing event was seen by Gaia about two hours later than by scientists on Earth. That difference in time allowed the researchers to measure the planet’s distance and estimate its mass.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s really great about this work, and really noteworthy, is that it\u2019s the first time we\u2019ve got a mass for these objects,\u201d says Gavin Coleman, a postdoctoral researcher at Queen Mary University of London, who authored a related commentary<\/a> also published in Science but was not involved in the study. \u201cThis was purely because the authors had both ground-based observations and Gaia, looking at observations from two different places.\u201d<\/p>\n

What they found is that the planet has about the same mass as Saturn. But the findings also offer a hint about its past: \u201cKnowing [its mass] is the starting point,\u201d Dong says. \u201cWe can start to understand, okay, what could be the origin, the history of this planet?\u201d<\/p>\n

Dong hopes the study offers a jumping-off point for more research to better understand these mysterious cosmic bodies<\/a>. That pursuit gets a boost later this year from NASA\u2019s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch in September, says David Bennet, a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park, and NASA. Able to image the entire sky 1,000 times faster than the Hubble Space Telescope can, Roman could help identify hundreds of rogue planets<\/a>. And with this work, researchers will have a way to estimate their masses, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe door is open to study this new emerging population of planets,\u201d Dong says.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Time to Stand Up for Science<\/p>\n

If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n

If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/a>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n

In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts<\/a>, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters<\/a>, must-watch videos, challenging games<\/a>, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When we imagine a planet, we think of one like ours, orbiting a star. But some have a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[49,48,314,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-383335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-physics","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}