CFBDSIR 2149-0403 (full designation CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9) is a
free-floating planetary-mass object or possibly a high-
metallicity
In astronomy, metallicity is the abundance of elements present in an object that are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Most of the normal physical matter in the Universe is either hydrogen or helium, and astronomers use the word ''"metals"'' as a ...
, low-mass
brown dwarf in the constellation
Aquarius. Originally, it was thought to be part of the
AB Doradus moving group AB Doradus Moving Group is a group of about 30 associated stars that are moving through space together with the star AB Doradus. A moving group is distinguished by its members having about the same age, composition (or metallicity) and motion throu ...
(ABDMG) as indicated by its position and
proper motion
Proper motion is the astrometric measure of the observed changes in the apparent places of stars or other celestial objects in the sky, as seen from the center of mass of the Solar System, compared to the abstract background of the more dista ...
,
[
] but the same team that discovered the object and conjectured its membership in the group has now rejected that hypothesis due to newer measurements. Without that membership, the age and mass of the object cannot be constrained.
[
] There is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that CFBDSIR 2149-0403 formed as a planet and was subsequently ejected.
Discovery
CFBDSIR 2149-0403 was discovered by the
Canada-France Brown Dwarfs Survey, a near-
infrared sky survey, and confirmed by
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data.
Philippe Delorme, of the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble in France and his team, including researchers at Université de Montréal in Canada, detected CFBDSIR2149's infrared signature using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. They then examined the body's properties with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile.
Distance
If this object is actually a
rogue planet (which has not been decisively demonstrated), then it is among the closest that has ever been spotted.
If the object belongs to the ABDMG then its distance is estimated to be 40±4
parsecs (130±13 light-years) from Earth; other possible estimates range from 25 to 50 parsecs.
The closest confirmed rogue planet is
PSO J318.5-22 PSO may refer to:
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.
Age
In the discovery paper, CFBDSIR 2149-0403 was claimed to possibly be a kinematic member of the
AB Doradus moving group AB Doradus Moving Group is a group of about 30 associated stars that are moving through space together with the star AB Doradus. A moving group is distinguished by its members having about the same age, composition (or metallicity) and motion throu ...
(ABDMG). The ABDMG appears to be similar in age to the
Pleiades,
which has a lithium-depletion boundary age of Myr.
If CFBDSIR2149 is indeed associated with the ABDMG, then it is similarly young. However, with Delorme's team now rejecting that hypothesis, estimates are either under 500 million years as a rogue planet with mass between 2 and 13 Jupiter masses, or else a two- to three-billion-year-old brown dwarf with mass between 2 and 40 Jupiter masses. The object shows signs of low gravity (brighter K band in the near-infrared), which could be attributable to youth.
Atmosphere
Spectroscopy
Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter wa ...
observations have found light absorption by gaseous
methane and
water in the object's atmosphere.
See also
*
GU Piscium b, an exoplanet orbiting
GU Piscium at a distance of 2000 AU and period of 163,000 years in the AB Doradus moving group
*
2MASS J1119–1137
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different element ...
, a similar rogue exoplanet discovered in 2016
Further reading
*
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:CFBDSIR 2149-0403
Free-floating substellar objects
Giant planets
CFBDS objects
20121114
Rogue planets
Articles containing video clips