New research suggests that the mystical “rogue” pair of Jupiter-sized objects discovered by James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are only a small part of what was originally formed. This finding suggests that these enigmatic entities, called “Jumbos,” are rarer than previously thought, and raise questions about their very existence.
Jumbos, short for “Jupiter-Mass binary object,” is a pair of planet-like Jupiter-sized objects discovered by JWST in the trapezoidal region of an Orion Nebula cluster in 2023. Jumbo members do not bring stars into orbit. Instead, they rotate towards each other at a distance of about 25 to 400 astronomical units, floating freely or “injustice.” (One astronomical unit is approximately 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers, the average distance between the Earth and the Sun.)
The status of pairs of objects and the apparent lack of tethering to stars challenges existing concepts of how planets are born. That has not stopped scientists from coming up with some ideas about the formation of jumbos. They were co-selled by another star, including that they formed around a star like planets in the solar system. Another hypothesis suggests that Jumbos is the erosion core of embryonic stars and formed like stars.
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However, some researchers are skeptical that even Jumbos exists. In 2024, for example, Kevin Luman, a professor at the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pennsylvania, reanalyzed JWST observations, suggesting that, after all, the paired pairs are not planets. Instead, he proposed that they were distant background objects that were accidentally captured in a snapshot of the Orion Nebula Cluster in JWST.
In fact, Richard Parker, a senior lecturer in astrophysics at the University of Sheffield in the UK and lead author of the new study, told Live Science via email that it was a discussion of Luman’s research that prompted new research. At this group meeting, Simon Goodwin, professor of theoretical astrophysics at the University of Sheffield and second author of the new study, suggested that simulations can help identify how conflict-prone jumbos are destroyed. In fact, no previous studies have investigated how long these planet pairs last in interstellar space. Such an environment is packed with growth stars that can fragment the duo through powerful gravity pulls.
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To understand how Jumbos effectively tolerated turbulence in the natal environment, Parker, Goodwin and Jessica Diamond, students at the University of Sheffield, created a computer model of the nebulae containing nebulae and jumbo mixtures, with arrangements that may have mimicked the cloud cloud composition of Orion Cloud Cloud.
The researchers then generated five copies of this model with different internal parameters, such as the distance between members of a particular planetary duo and the overall distance of the nebulae crowding. For each model copy, the team conducted a 10-round N-body simulation.
“These computer simulations calculate the gravity force of each object from all other objects,” Parker added that such calculations can be performed repeatedly to reveal how different components of the model nebula interact with time.
Researchers have found that the simulated jumbo is very short-lived. In dense nebulae, for example, almost 90% of the planet pairs were destroyed by neighboring stars within a million years. Even in the best-case scenario, when there were less stars overall in the nebula and Jumbos waltzed in orbit, only half of the pair of planets resisted the confusion. Analysis revealed that the wider separation of planet pairs, the more likely it is to become confusing.
Parker said he was not particularly surprised by the findings, as he and his colleagues had previously known that the planetary system was very fragile in a star-crowded environment.[b]This is because the planets and planet binaries are not very large, have low energy, and are susceptible to destruction. ”
The results were published in the Royal Astronomical Society’s Monthly Notification Magazine on May 2nd. The letters indicate that the observed jumbo is very rare. However, Parker said this suggests the same disturbing possibility that was proposed by Luman. This is because the planet pairs had to be produced in far more numbers than is currently thought to explain the number of jumbos that JWST was detected. According to Parker, this result could add support to the interpretation of jumbo as background noise.
“I think the next step is for someone else to get the original JWST data and analyze it again,” he added.
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