Astronomers Discover Mysterious Object Named Phoebe in Gravitational Microlensing Event
Something Just Passed Between Us and a Distant Star.

Image: Universe Today
On December 18, 2019, astronomers observed a brief brightening of a star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, attributed to an object named Phoebe. This phenomenon, known as gravitational microlensing, raises questions about Phoebe's nature, with possibilities including a rogue planet or a primordial black hole formed shortly after the Big Bang.
- 01Phoebe was detected during a gravitational microlensing event, indicating an object passed in front of a distant star.
- 02The object is estimated to have a mass approximately three times that of the Moon.
- 03Three main hypotheses exist regarding Phoebe's identity: a free-floating planet, a planet from the Large Magellanic Cloud, or a primordial black hole.
- 04The likelihood of Phoebe being a dark matter object is significantly higher than it being associated with normal stellar matter.
- 05If Phoebe is indeed a dark matter object, it could be one of the oldest known entities, formed before the first stars.
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On December 18, 2019, a star in the Large Magellanic Cloud exhibited a brief increase in brightness, leading astronomers to identify the object responsible as Phoebe. This event, known as gravitational microlensing, occurs when a massive object bends light from a distant star, creating a distinctive brightening pattern. A team from Swinburne University in Melbourne analyzed the data and proposed three possible identities for Phoebe: a rogue planet, a planet from the Large Magellanic Cloud, or a primordial black hole formed shortly after the Big Bang. Calculations suggest Phoebe has a mass about three times that of the Moon, making it too small to be a stellar remnant black hole. Notably, the analysis indicates that Phoebe is far more likely to be a dark matter object than anything associated with normal stars, with a probability factor of 100,000. If confirmed, Phoebe could represent one of the oldest objects detected, having existed for approximately 13 billion years since the universe's infancy.
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