At the end of 2023, astronomers made a surprising discovery in the Orion Nebula. Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the team found 40 double planetary mass objects, none of which were orbiting a star. These are called Jupiter Mass Binary Objects, or JuMBOs.
In short, this discovery directly challenged both the theories of star birth and planet formation. The origins of these spheres were unknown and it was unclear how such a large collection came to be. couples Some of these objects came to orbit the Orion star birthplace, located about 1,350 light-years from Earth.
But now a team of astrophysicists from the University of Nevada and Stoneybrook University think they may have solved the puzzle. The team presents an intriguing model to explain how these strange objects are expelled from home systems, acting treacherously when mating with a binary partner. If the findings are correct, they could revolutionize our picture of planetary evolution.
Relating to: Radio signals from the Orion Nebula reveal new data about strange celestial objects: ‘JuMBOS’
“Our simulations show that close stellar encounters can spontaneously knock pairs of giant planets out of their native systems, causing them to orbit each other in space,” Yihan Wang, a postdoctoral researcher at the Nevada Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement. said. “These findings could significantly change our perception of planetary dynamics and the diversity of planetary systems in our universe.”
A JuMBO challenge
The existence of JuMBOs has been difficult to explain because they do not fit neatly into classically accepted models of star formation or planet formation.
JuMBOs, hot, gaseous binary objects, may initially appear to form by the collapse of extremely dense regions in clouds of gas and dust. This is how stars form, and this is even the mechanism followed by “failed stars” or brown dwarfs; This mechanism gets its nickname from their inability to accumulate enough mass in their nuclei to convert hydrogen into helium; this is a defining star characteristic. .
But JuMBOS probably takes a different path towards reality. For example, the chance of a star having a binary partner decreases significantly as the masses of these stars decrease. For example, about 75% of massive stars are found in binary pairs, but only 50% of stars with masses similar to the sun are found with a stellar partner. And the chances of finding a brown dwarf in a binary system with a mass of about 0.75 times that of the Sun are vanishingly small, approaching zero percent.
Brown dwarfs have, on average, about 75 times the mass of Jupiter. Therefore, stars less massive than this Never available in binaries – certainly not often enough to find 40 in the same nebula. JuMBOs have masses less than 13 times the mass of Jupiter, below the lower end of brown dwarfs. So, what’s going on?
Moreover, JuMBOs cannot be explained by standard planet formation models. These are models that show them being born from residual gas around a parent star, or stars if you’re working with a binary system. This is because, while we know that planets are regularly ejected from their home systems, becoming rogue planets, aka cosmic orphans wandering the cosmos without a parent star, this process would have to be so violent that it would tear apart potential gravitationally bound planets.
The fact that astronomers have found 40 pairs of JuMBOs in the Orion Nebula alone seems to rule out some strange ejection event that caused the pair of planets to be ejected together without being separated.
To solve the mystery of where JuMBOS might come from, the team performed advanced supercomputer simulations of launch events. These “N-body” simulations allowed them to explore interactions in densely packed star clusters; This could mean that massive planets are ejected but remain gravitationally bound together. The conclusion was that JuMBOs could come from densely populated star clusters. If that’s the case, then these strangely free-floating binaries may actually be quite common.
The team’s results have implications for our general understanding of planet formation; It shows that features such as the orbital separation between planetary bodies in the JuMBO coupling and the shape of those orbits can influence the turbulent environmental conditions that influence the birth of planets.
“It introduces dynamic stellar interactions as an important factor in the development of unusual planetary systems in dense stellar environments,” team member and Stony Brook University physics professor Rosalba Perna said in a statement. said.
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The team’s research paves the way for future JuMBO research with the tool that potentially helps discover these star pairings: JWST. This also tells researchers that planet formation is a more diverse and exciting process than previously known.
“Understanding the formation of JuMBOs helps us challenge and improve existing theories of planet formation,” team member and UNLV astrophysicist Zhaohuan Zhu said in a statement. said. “Future observations from JWST may help us do just that, providing new information with each observation that will help us better formulate new theories of giant planet formation.”
The team’s research was published Friday, April 19, in the journal Nature Astronomy.