V1400 Centauri

Photo of V1400 Centauri

V1400 Centauri (also called 1SWASP J140747 or J1407 for short) is a very young star about 16 million years old. The star is about the same size as the Sun. It is located in the constellation Centaurus at a distance of about 451 light years away from Earth.

In April and May 2007, V1400 Centauri was found to be dimming very strangely. Scientists believed this strange dimming was caused by a planet-like object with a giant ring system, which passed in front of V1400 Centauri and blocked out its light. At first, scientists thought the ringed object was a planet orbiting the star, so they called it "J1407b". However, V1400 Centauri did not show any dimming before or after 2007, so scientists now believe that J1407b is more likely a rogue, free-floating object that does not orbit the star.

High-resolution radio-wave image of V1400 Centauri, whose location is marked with a white cross. There is a dim object close to the star (labeled in yellow), and that dim object might be J1407b.

In 2017, scientists took high-resolution photos of V1400 Centauri in radio waves and found a very dim object close to the star. This dim object near the star might be J1407b, or it could be a faraway galaxy. If this dim object turns out to be J1407b, then it would have a mass less than 6 times that of Jupiter, which would make J1407b a brown dwarf or a rogue planet.

V1400 Centauri Media

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  This light curve of V1400 Centauri's brightness during 2007 shows a 56-day-long series of dimming events. It has been hypothesized that these dimmings were caused by a large disked object (J1407b) eclipsing the star.