Well, we say ‘near’ our solar system, but you won’t exactly be going there for the Easter break – the object, CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9, is 100 light years away, Joinfo.com reports with reference to Metro.
Scientists are now puzzling over what the mysterious object is – is it a rogue, free-floating planet, or something even stranger?
Scientists now believe that the planet – found in 2012 – might be a ‘brown dwarf’ – an object too small to be a star, but too big to be a planet.
‘CFBDSIR 2149-0403 is an atypical substellar object that is either a ‘free-floating planet’ or a rare high-metallicity brown dwarf. Or a combination of both,’ said Dr Philippe Delorme from Grenoble Alpes University in France.
‘We now reject our initial hypothesis that CFBDSIR 2149-0403 would be a member of the AB Doradus moving group.
‘Though determining that certainly improved our knowledge of the object it also made it more difficult to study, by adding age as a free parameter.’