{"id":389021,"date":"2026-01-25T03:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T03:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/389021\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T03:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T03:02:18","slug":"astronomers-spot-mystery-object-surrounded-by-rotating-metal-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/389021\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronomers spot ‘mystery object’ surrounded by rotating metal cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"

Astronomers have discovered a unidentified object surrounded by a rotating metal cloud in the depths of spce.<\/p>\n

Scientists had been tracking a star roughly 3,000 lightyears from Earth – and noticed it growing significantly fainter over time.<\/p>\n

The star, designated J0705+0612, is more than two billion years old and resembles our own sun.<\/p>\n

Between September 2024 and May 2025, its brightness dropped by a factor of 40, according to the US National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, which announced the findings on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

At first, researchers didn’t know why.<\/p>\n

“Stars like the sun don’t just stop shining for no reason,” said Nadia Zakamska, a professor of astrophysics at Johns Hopkins University, “so dramatic dimming events like this are very rare.”<\/p>\n

The swirling cloud of gas and dust spans roughly 120 million miles and is gravitationally tethered to a second object orbiting the star.<\/p>\n

Researchers have yet to identify what this object is, though measurements indicate it has a mass several times greater than Jupiter, at minimum.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

PICTURED: An artist’s impression of a disc of planetary debris shrouded by a thick cloud of dust and gas<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

INTERNATIONAL GEMINI OBSERVATORY\/NOIRLAB<\/p>\n

NOIRLab suggested it could be either a brown dwarf or a low-mass star.<\/p>\n

Depending on its nature, the cloud would be classified as a circumsecondary or circumplanetary disc.<\/p>\n

Such a find is exceptionally uncommon.<\/p>\n

Analysis revealed the cloud, currently positioned about 1.2 billion miles from the star, contains multiple metals, including iron and calcium.<\/p>\n

The Gemini South telescope in Chile, operated by NOIRLab, made the initial observation, with additional data gathered from New Mexico’s Apache Point Observatory and Chile’s Magellan Telescopes.<\/p>\n

SPACE MYSTERIES – READ MORE:<\/p>\n

\"Gemini<\/p>\n

The Gemini South telescope in Chile, operated by NOIRLab, made the initial observation<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

NOIRLAB<\/p>\n

Scientists then cross-referenced their findings with historical records of the star.<\/p>\n

The GHOST instrument aboard Gemini South, which analyses objects through light wavelength patterns, examined the cloud for over two hours.<\/p>\n

“The sensitivity of GHOST allowed us to not only detect the gas in this cloud, but to actually measure how it is moving,” said Prof Zakamska.<\/p>\n

“That’s something we’ve never been able to do before in a system like this.”<\/p>\n

\"Dust<\/p>\n

Researchers believe the cloud formed after a collision between two planets – with the dust eventually circling outwards like this<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

NASA<\/p>\n

She believes the cloud formed following a collision between two planets within the J0705+0612 system.<\/p>\n

The finding provides insight into how planetary systems continue to evolve long after their initial formation.<\/p>\n

“This event shows us that even in mature planetary systems, dramatic, large-scale collisions can still occur. It’s a vivid reminder that the universe is far from static – it’s an ongoing story of creation, destruction and transformation,” the professor said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Astronomers have discovered a unidentified object surrounded by a rotating metal cloud in the depths of spce. Scientists…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,2331,416,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-389021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-sgg","tag-space","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}