Massive rogue planet with mystical aurora found drifting outside solar system

A rogue planet, over 12 times bigger than that the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter, and not attached to any star, was discovered to be drifting alone through space not very far away from Earth. The planet is the first object of its kind to be found using a radio telescope. But more than its unnatural path across the universe, its mass and powerful magnetic strength (which is 200 times that of Jupiter) are baffling scientists. “This object is right at the boundary between a planet and a brown dwarf, or ‘failed star’, and is giving us some surprises that can potentially help us understand magnetic processes on both stars and planets,” The Sun quoted Melodie Kao, the lead author of the study at Arizona State University, as saying. [caption id=“attachment_4571131” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] The planet also boasts scorching surface temperatures of about 825 degrees Celsius, the report added. By comparison, the Sun’s surface temperature is 5,505 degrees Celsius. Originally detected in 2016 using the Very Large Array (VLA) telescope in New Mexico, the newly identified planet 20 light years away from Earth was initially considered a brown dwarf, according to  Independent. Brown dwarves are often difficult objects to categorise, as they are both too big to be called planets and not huge enough to be considered stars. Similar to the **aurora borealis** or the northern lights seen from near the north pole, this planet and some brown dwarves are known to have auroras of their own – despite lacking the solar winds that traditionally drive these phenomena. The cause for auroras are yet to be explained, but their strong magnetic fields might hold clues. “This particular object is exciting because studying its magnetic dynamo mechanisms can give us new insights on how the same type of mechanisms can operate in extrasolar planets – planets beyond our solar system,” the report quoted Kao as saying. “We think these mechanisms can work not only in brown dwarfs, but also in both gas giant and terrestrial planets,” she said. Their research was published in The Astrophysical Journal.