14 DAY TRIAL // A recent study in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society announces the discovery of a fairly peculiar celestial body at a distance of somewhere between 33 and 55 light-years from Earth.
Astronomers say that the object, named WISE J0304-2705, appears to currently have a temperature of about 100-150 degrees Celsius (212-302 degrees Fahrenheit).
Interestingly enough, evidence indicates that, in its heydays, it was about as hot as a star. More precisely, it likely sizzled at approximately 2,800 degrees Celsius (5,072 degrees Fahrenheit).
According to specialists with the Royal Astronomical Society in the UK, this planet-like object ended up cooling to a considerable extent due to the fact that its core never got hot enough to sustain hydrogen fusion.
“The reason that WISE J0304-2705 underwent such extensive evolutionary cooling is because it is ‘sub-stellar’ - its interior never became hot enough for hydrogen fusion, the process that has kept the Sun hot for billions of years.”
“And without an energy source maintaining a stable temperature, cooling and fading was inevitable,” astronomers write in a press release documenting the discovery of this odd celestial body.
Despite its fairly low temperature, the object is said to resemble not rocky Earth-like planets in terms of makeup, but ginormous balls of gas like Jupiter. In terms of size, the object is believed to be the equivalent of 20-30 Jupiters.
The likely evolution of this celestial body is detailed in the photo next to this article. Thus, astronomers say that, when very young, WISE J0304-2705 had a temperature of about 2,800 degrees Celsius (5,072 degrees Fahrenheit). It likely stayed this hot for about 20 million years.
About 100 million years later, it probably cooled to 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,732 degrees Fahrenheit). By the time it was 1 billion years old, its temperature must have dropped to 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Celsius). Billions of years later, it reached its current temperature.
This newly discovered celestial body is said to belong to a so-called Y dwarf class, defined as the coolest stellar temperature class to have until now been documented by science. Together with WISE J0304-2,705, this class currently comprises just 20 other such objects.
Commenting on the discovery of this celestial body, Prof. David Pinfield at the University of Hertfordshire said, “Our measurements suggest that this Y dwarf may have a composition and/or age characteristic of one of the Galaxy's older members.”
“The ground based measurements were very challenging, even with the largest telescopes. It was exciting when the results showed just how cool this object was, and that it was unusual,” team member Dr. Mariusz Gromadzki wished to stress.