NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered half a dozen solitary ‘rogue’ planets (not attached to any star).
The ‘rogue’ planets were discovered in the Perseus Cloud and the ‘NGC 1333’ nebula, which is about 960 light-years from Earth.
It was recorded that gas and dust combine to form stars and other celestial bodies in the turbulent environment of NGC 1333, which was imaged with JWST’s infrared cameras.
But according to astronomers, six of the ‘rogue’ planets are larger than Jupiter. Dr. Adam Langeveld, an astrophysicist and lead author of the study from Johns Hopkins University, said: “We are exploring the limits of the star formation process. If there is a body similar to the young Jupiter, could it possibly become a star under the right conditions? This is important for understanding both star and planet formation.”
PLANET FORMATION IS POSSIBLE WITHOUT BEING BOUND BY A STAR
“We used Webb’s unprecedented sensitivity at infrared wavelengths to search for the faintest members of a young star cluster, and we tried to address a fundamental question in astronomy: What is the lightest mass that can form a star? The study found that the mass of the smallest ‘free-floating’ objects that form as stars matches that of giant exoplanets orbiting stars,” said Ray Jayawardhana, an astrophysicist and vice president of Johns Hopkins University and co-author of the study.
To Jayawardhana, the observation proves that planets can form by contracting clouds of gas and dust, even without a star at the centre.
ONE ONE HAS A MASS EQUAL TO 1600 EARTHS
The study noted that one of the newly identified ‘rogue’ planets has a mass five times that of Jupiter, which is equal to about 1,600 Earths.
A ‘BROWN DWARF’ WAS ALSO FOUND
It was stated that the dusty disk around the celestial body in question resembles the formation of a star and that it is possible for ‘mini planets’ to form there.
In addition to newborn stars and planets with a mass of 5-10 Jupiters in ‘NGC 1333’, researchers also detected a very rare celestial body called a ‘brown dwarf’ and a nearby celestial body with the mass of a planet.
‘Brown dwarfs’ are known as celestial bodies that are neither planets nor stars, generally having a greater mass than planets but not as much mass as stars.
The research will be published in ‘The Astronomical Journal’.
