Astronomers have captured a “rogue planet” devouring 6 billion tons of gas and dust per second, marking the record speed and blurring the line between stars and planets.
The mysterious planet, called Cha 1107-7626, is devoid of orbiting any star and lies outside of our solar system, 620 light-years from Earth in the Chamaeleon constellation.
The rogue planet is 5 to 10 times larger than that of Jupiter and according to recent research published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters with each passing second it is getting bigger.
These observations regarding the rogue planet were made at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), located in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
Víctor Almendros-Abad, lead author of the recent study, said: “People may think of planets as quiet and stable worlds, but with this discovery we see that planetary-mass objects freely floating in space can be exciting places.”
According to study co-author Aleks Scholz, Cha 1107-7626 is estimated to be 1-2 million years old, but it is also growing at unprecedented growth spurt. The planets in our solar system are about 4.5 billion years old, but this planet is in incipient stage.
Cha 1107-7626 is growing at the record-breaking speed through the process of accretion. But the rate at which the young planet is forming varied as reported by the researchers.
By August 2025, the planet was growing around eight times faster than in previous months. “This is the strongest accretion episode ever recorded for a planetary-mass object,” Mr Almendros-Abad said.
The true nature of the rogue planet has been shrouded in mystery for years. "The origin of rogue planets remains an open question: are they the lowest-mass objects formed like stars, or giant planets ejected from their birth systems?” asked by Aleks Scholz.
