Current:Home > ContactNASA's Webb telescope spots 6 rogue planets: What it says about star, planet formation -Elite Financial Minds
NASA's Webb telescope spots 6 rogue planets: What it says about star, planet formation
View
Date:2025-04-14 03:55:23
In the latest discovery made possible by the James Webb Space Telescope, a group of astrophysicists detected six wandering rogue planets unbound from the gravitational influence of any star.
The group of cosmic bodies are slightly bigger than Jupiter and have no star to orbit. Instead, the researchers at Johns Hopkins University suspect the rogue worlds nearly 1,000 light-years from Earth came to existence in the same process that forms stars.
The discovery is an illuminating one, offering astrophysicists more insight and evidence into the cosmic recipe that creates stars and planets across the universe. The evidence the researchers came across provides a convincing "yes" to the question of whether the same cosmic process can just as easily give birth to a star as a Jupiter-sized planet.
“We are probing the very limits of the star forming process,” study lead author Adam Langeveld, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins, said in a statement. “If you have an object that looks like a young Jupiter, is it possible that it could have become a star under the right conditions? This is important context for understanding both star and planet formation.”
Webb observations provide insights into planet and star formation
The observations came from the Webb telescope, which surveyed a nebula named NGC 1333. The giant space cloud of dust and gas is located 960 light-years away in the Perseus constellation.
Unlike its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, Webb has the capability of observing the universe in infrared light, which allowed the cosmic observatory to see through the dust obscuring the view of the star formation process.
Stars form when an accumulation of gas and dust collapses due to gravity. Scientists think that generally what follows is the formation of planets, which emerge from the giant, donut-shaped disk of gas and dust that circles young stars.
But by analyzing Webb's data, the astrophycistics discovered that within the nebula are rogue gas-giants five to 10 times more massive than Jupiter. The find offers convincing evidence confirming that celestial objects that are light enough can form from the same process that creates stars.
The team now says that those gas-giants are the lightest objects ever found to have grown from a process that would generally produce something as massive as a star and brown dwarfs – objects too big to be a planet and too small to be a star.
One of the newly-discovered celestial bodies has an estimated mass of five Jupiters, or about 1,600 Earths. That may sound heavy in comparison, but it was the lightest of the starless objects the team observed.
And because of the dusty disk surrounding the object, the team could conclude that it likely formed similar to a star. What's more, disks of gas and dust are a crucial ingredient for the formation of planets, meaning the object could form "mini" planets, according to the research.
"This might be a nursery of a miniature planetary system, on a scale much smaller than our solar system," study co-author Alexander Scholz, an astrophysicist at the University of St Andrews, said in a statement.
Learning more about rogue worlds
Mystery still surround rogue planets and their cryptic formations.
It's possible the nomadic worlds originate either from collapsing molecular clouds or when when gas and dust in disks around stars coalesce into planet-like orbs that are ejected from their star systems.
Regardless, the wandering objects defy traditional classification as either a gas giant or a brown dwarf because of their masses. And while they're rare in our Milky Way galaxy, the new Webb data show they account for about 10% of celestial bodies in the targeted star cluster.
"The diversity of systems that nature has produced is remarkable and pushes us to refine our models of star and planet formation," said senior study author Ray Jayawardhana, provost and astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University.
More Webb analysis coming
In the coming months, the team will turn to Webb to study the celestial bodies and their atmospheres in order to compare them to heavier brown dwarfs and gas giant planets.
The astrophysicists will also use the space telescope to observe similar objects with dusty disks to learn more about mini planetary systems that resemble Jupiter's and Saturn's many moons.
The researchers' findings will be published in The Astronomical Journal.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]
veryGood! (9218)
Related
- Elon Musk's skyrocketing net worth: He's the first person with over $400 billion
- Most popular books of the week: See what topped USA TODAY's bestselling books list
- Man can't find second winning lottery ticket, sues over $394 million jackpot, lawsuit says
- Civic engagement nonprofits say democracy needs support in between big elections. Do funders agree?
- Spooky or not? Some Choa Chu Kang residents say community garden resembles cemetery
- Pressure on a veteran and senator shows what’s next for those who oppose Trump
- Sarah J. Maas books explained: How to read 'ACOTAR,' 'Throne of Glass' in order.
- Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds’ warning
- Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds’ warning
- A South Texas lawmaker’s 15
Ranking
- The Daily Money: Spending more on holiday travel?
- Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie return for an 'Encore,' reminisce about 'The Simple Life'
- Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people
- Sam Taylor
- Nevada attorney general revives 2020 fake electors case
- New Zealand official reverses visa refusal for US conservative influencer Candace Owens
- Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
- Rylee Arnold Shares a Long
Recommendation
Macy's says employee who allegedly hid $150 million in expenses had no major 'impact'
'Malcolm in the Middle’ to return with new episodes featuring Frankie Muniz
'No Good Deed': Who's the killer in the Netflix comedy? And will there be a Season 2?
What to watch: O Jolie night
Average rate on 30
Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing
Why we love Bear Pond Books, a ski town bookstore with a French bulldog 'Staff Pup'
NHL in ASL returns, delivering American Sign Language analysis for Deaf community at Winter Classic