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Scientists managed to find dozens of planet-like objects in the Trapezium cluster with masses like Jupiter. The planets are not tied to any stars and drift across the galaxy with a series of other companion objects.

This finding was made thanks to James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations of the star-forming heart of the Orion nebula. 42 of these objects apparently do not have a formation mechanism that can produce binary mass.

About One Million Years Old

Astronomers from the European Space Agency, Samuel Pearson and Mark McCaughrean, described the discovery as Jupiter Mass Binary Objects or JuMBOs.

They estimate that JuMBO is about one million years old and has a temperature of about 1,000 Kelvin, as reported by Science Alert.

Through analysis of the faint light they emit, it is known that these celestial objects contain water vapor, carbon monoxide and methane. This is normal for baby gas giants in space.

Planets Not Tied to Stars

Scientists also estimate that in the home environment of these planet-like objects, many rogue exoplanets are found, known as rogue exoplanets.

A rogue planet is a planet that is not tied to its star. This is because many stars are found close to each other so they may interfere with other planetary systems.

In addition, the existence of a gaseous body with a mass like a planet and floating freely in Orion is not a surprise. Astronomers have detected this for decades even on planets three times the mass of Jupiter.

“We looked for these very small objects and we found them. We found they were as small as one Jupiter mass, even half a Jupiter mass, floating freely, not tied to a star,” McCaughrean told The Guardian.

JuMBO Comes in Pairs

Furthermore, scientists said that this finding had another problem, namely that JuMBO came in pairs. A wandering planet doing its own thing was already an anomaly. However, two objects with planetary mass and gravitationally bound to each other are more difficult to explain.

Stars are basically formed from clumps of molecular cloud material that collapse due to gravity. As stars rotate, they pull in more material from the surrounding clouds and form a disk.

During this process, the disk can rupture and result in the formation of a second star, resulting in the birth of a binary star.

However, the theoretical limit for the mass of an object formed through this cloud collapse formation scenario is around three Jupiter masses.

Simulations show that smaller objects can escape the system very easily, either due to interactions with planets or stars. However, this ejection mechanism will not be conducive to pairs of planets cohabiting.

It is possible that lone ejected planets may encounter other planets and become gravitationally bound. However, researchers estimate that this is very rare.

According to a paper published at Cornell University, the collection of planetary mass objects and JuMBOs seen in the Trapezium Cluster may have arisen from a combination of these two “classical” scenarios.

“While both have significant caveats, or perhaps quite separate new formation mechanisms, such as fragmentation of starless disks, are needed,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

Watch the video “James Webb Telescope Reveals the Beauty of Spiral Galaxy M51”

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2023-10-11 02:30:00
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