James Webb telescope sheds light on mystery of ‘rogue’ planets

NEW DELHI: The enigmatic presence of hundreds of free-floating planets, discovered by the Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), has intrigued scientists for years. A recent study might be closing in on an explanation for these celestial wanderers, known as rogue planets, which drift through space without orbiting a star. Among these, pairs of Jupiter-sized worlds that orbit each other, labeled as Jupiter-mass binary objects (JuMBOs), have particularly baffled astronomers.
Initially identified over two decades ago using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope in Hawaii, the existence of rogue planets has been confirmed by numerous observations, with JWST’s powerful capabilities uncovering more than 500 such planets within the Orion Nebula. Notably, 80 of these planets were found to form pairs, ranging between 0.7 and 13 times the mass of Jupiter.
The formation of JuMBOs and rogue planets has been subject to speculation. One theory suggests these planets may form through the gravitational collapse of gas and dust clouds, similar to the process of star formation. Another theory posits that gravitational interactions with large objects, such as passing stars, could eject these planets from their original planetary systems, a report in Live Science said.
Dong Lai, a professor of astrophysics at Cornell University, and Fangyuan Yu, a student at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, have conducted tens of thousands of simulations to test the likelihood of the stellar flyby theory in producing JuMBOs and solitary free-floating planets (FFPs). Their findings suggest that while single planets are significantly more likely to be ejected during such encounters, the probability of paired planets being simultaneously expelled is less than 1%, even under the most favorable conditions.
The results of Lai and Yu’s simulations, which have been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal and are available as a preprint on arXiv, support the cloud-collapse model as a more plausible explanation for the formation of JuMBOs. These simulations serve not only as theoretical groundwork but also as a guide for future astronomical observations, potentially aiding in the discovery and understanding of exotic planetary systems.
As construction continues on the Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile, the insights gained from this study are expected to enhance our understanding of planetary systems within dense star clusters and the dynamics of captured planets.