流浪行星的双重视角

A collaboration between ground and space observations unveils a rogue planet Gavin A. L. Coleman P lanets are often found orbiting a star or a group of multiple stars. However, planets have also been observed to drift in- dependently without a known accompanying star system. These celestial objects, called free-floating or rogue planets, are difficult to detect because they don’t emit enough light to be spotted through current generation telescopes. On page 96 of this issue, Dong et al. (1) report the discovery of a rogue planet by a short- lived microlensing event, an astronomical phenomenon in which the gravitational effect of a foreground object magnifies the light from a background star. …