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    1. Astronomers have observed a planet that in some ways behaves more like a star — including a massive growth spurt unlike anything witnessed before in a free-floating planet.

      The rogue planet, which does not orbit any star, is called Cha 1107-7626 and is outside of our solar system, 620 light-years from Earth in the Chamaeleon constellation. A single [light-year](https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/31/world/bill-nye-light-year-scn), or the distance light travels in one year, is equal to 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers).

      The planet has a mass five to 10 times that of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. And it’s getting bigger every second, according to new research published Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

    2. >The planet unexpectedly began gorging on the gas surrounding it a few months ago and is now swallowing down six billion tonnes (2.2 trillion pounds) every second

      How dense would the gas around the planet have to be to allow this? And why is it called „the gas surrounding the planet“ and not just it’s atmosphere? Is the gas not caught in its gravity well?

    3. So… If it keeps growing to the point of fusion processes starting, it becomes a star? Is this surprising? All stars must have a similar phase of accretion before they are large enough to ignite, as far as I understand it. Unless the accretion disk and gas surrounding it are too small, so it never reaches ignition.

    4. strugglin_man on

      5 to 10 Jupiter masses is 0.5 to one solar mass. The only reason this isn’t a star is that it is not yet dense enough to ignite. Should eventually be a red dwarf or even sunlike star.

    5. This_Growth2898 on

      So, an object that is forming has a weight of 3/4 of the brown dwarf and keeps gaining weight.

      I don’t think „planet behaving like a star“ is a correct description; it’s the brown dwarf in a process of formation. Yes, it’s cool we can observe this process, but absolutely nothing unexpected.

    6. brothegaminghero on

      So a t dawrf is accreating matter, how is this not just a young star. its mass is on the low end for t tauri stars and is in a star forming region. Lets just check back in a couple million years when it ignites.

    7. The rogue planet should know it’s place.  It’s a supporting actor at best. 

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