Cha 1107-7626 is 620 light-years away from Earth and is around 5-10 times the mass of Jupiter, meaning it is massively bigger than any planet in our solar system. Cha 1107-7626 is surrounded by a disc of dust and gas and is growing rapidly (by 6 billion tonnes) every second. The planet is absorbing the gas surrounding it and its growth is a process called accretion which is growth by the gradual accumulation of matter and is the strongest accretion episode ever recorded for a planet! By August of this year, astronomers noticed that it was gathering 8 times more gas than it has done in earlier months.
What is especially interesting about this rogue planet is that astronomers have found signs of water vapour and a strong magnetic field guiding the planet’s mass which is very rarely seen in infant planets as it is more common in growing stars.
There is little known about the origin of rogue planets as they are a phenomenon that doesn’t exist in our solar system. However, astronomers have some theories on why they happen; the first being that the planets formed in a star’s orbit but were then hurled into the void, the second is that they form independently through the collection of a collapsed cloud of gas and dust – which could be the case for Cha 1107-7626 due to its components. What is especially interesting about this rogue planet is that astronomers have found signs of water vapour and a strong magnetic field guiding the planet’s mass which is very rarely seen in infant planets as it is more common in growing stars.
How exciting it is to see that our galaxy contains so many phenomena and how lucky we are that we get to know and learn about it in real time!