— 5 years ago(October 30, 2020 03:17 PM)

potential
exoplanet
is smaller than
Earth
and likely has a mass similar to
Mars
.
Scientists have discovered another
rogue planet
, but this one has even experts perplexed: It's slightly smaller than
Earth
and is floating through the
Milky Way
.
The potential
exoplanet
likely has a mass similar to
Mars
, researchers said in the study published on the
arXiv.org repository
. Though
rogue planets
(those without stars) have been discovered before, they're extremely hard to spot.
"Our discovery demonstrates that
low-mass free-floating planets
can be detected and characterized using ground-based telescopes," the study's co-author,
Prof. Andrzej Udalski
, principal investigator of the
Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment
(
OGLE
) project, said in a statement.
An artist's impression of a
gravitational microlensing
event by a
free-floating planet
. Credit:
Jan Skowron
/
Astronomical Observatory
,
University of Warsaw
.
More than 4000 exoplanets
have been discovered by
NASA
in total, most using
the transit method
. Approximately 50 of them were believed to be potentially habitable as of September 2018, as they have the right size and the right orbit of their star to support surface water and, at least theoretically, to support life.
Transit observations
allow astronomers to look at a star and see it dim because another object has crossed in front of it. This type of observation will be expanded when
NASA
launches its
James Webb Space Telescope
in October 2021. The telescope was delayed in part because of
the China Virus pandemic
.
Another technique, which researchers used in the latest discovery, is "
gravitational microlensing
," which allows experts to look as objects in the foreground pass in front of objects in the background. The foreground object acts as a lens, bending and magnifying the light to reveal certain traits about the object in the background.
The event, known as
OGLE-2016-BLG-1928
, is the shortest
microlensing
event ever, at just 42 minutes.
"When we first spotted this event, it was clear that it must have been caused by an extremely tiny object," study co-author
Dr. Radoslaw Poleski
added.
"Chances of observing
microlensing
are extremely slim because three objects—source, lens, and observer – must be nearly perfectly aligned," added the study's lead author,
Przemek Mroz
. "If we observed only one source star, we would have to wait almost a million years to see the source being
microlensed
.".
“Call a SPADE, a SPADE; and a TRANNY, a TRANNY, or an IT!!!”.
"THAT'S SOME BAD
SHIT
,
HARRY
!".