Clouds made of droplets of molten iron have been detected on

[Toaster]

Clouds made of droplets of molten iron have been detected on a sunless world 75 light years from Earth.

Edinburgh University astronomers find sunless world

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-ea...

How intriguing

[Toaster]

http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2015/distantworld-031115

'Temperatures inside clouds on PSO J318.5-22 exceed 800°C'

[Toaster]

Eric Mc said:

What "neighboring bodies"? Is this planet orbiting a star or not?

There is no Star

https://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/Lon...

"We have never before seen an object free-floating in space that that looks like this. It has all the characteristics of young planets found around other stars, but it is drifting out there all alone,” explained team leader Dr. Michael Liu of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “I had often wondered if such solitary objects exist, and now we know they do.”

'neighbouring bodies' are not nearby bodies

Edited by Toaster on Thursday 5th November 09:14

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It is calculated that, for an Earth-sized object at a kilobar hydrogen atmospheric pressures in which a convective gas adiabat has formed, geothermal energy from residual core radioisotope decay will be sufficient to heat the surface to temperatures above the melting point of water

Id loved to have written that however https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet

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Hugo a Gogo said:

so exciting rogue planet or dull failed star?

Good question, it is being described by the scientists as a planet but as you are probably aware it wasn't until 2006 that the IAU provided a scientific definition of what a planet is

"The IAU members gathered at the 2006 General Assembly agreed that a “planet” is defined as a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit."

https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.iau.org/st...

Its an interesting document

[Toaster]

Hugo a Gogo said:

so by definition this isn't a planet

Reading that document it states our solar system, in which case it isn't defining this find

[Toaster]

Hugo a Gogo said:

true

the wiki page for exoplanets has this note:
"This definition is drawn from two separate IAU declarations; a formal definition agreed by the IAU in 2006, and an informal working definition established by the IAU in 2001/2003 for objects outside of the Solar System. The official 2006 definition applies only to the Solar System, whereas the 2003 definition applies to planets around other stars. The extrasolar planet issue was deemed too complex to resolve at the 2006 IAU conference."

Edited to say, good IAU find

Hugo I thing that it goes to show how difficult it is to get agreement and a definition, I think that I would accept the current term of it being a plant given the astronomers who found it ( id be a brave man to sit a room and tell them they have it wrong), however that doesn't mean I am fixated by that term and could indeed have another label (for example dud star) in the future with more research and agreement.

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Hugo a Gogo said:

I'm pretty sure they can agree it's not a plant

indeed but you never know where those triffids will come from.