It does not revolve around any star.free floating planet” is generated? Conventional theory suggests that they are the result of catastrophic dynamics within a planetary system, in which case free-floating planets would exist on their own.
A research team led by Luis F. Rodríguez, Laurent Loinard, and Luis A. Zapata from the National Autonomous University of Mexico has discovered a free-floating binary star that was just discovered in 2023 using the James Webb Space Telescope. All 42 pairs of planet candidates areVLA (Karl Jansky Very Large Interferometric Radio Telescopes)” was observed. As a result, the onlyJuMBO 24” was successfully observed,Additional evidence for a free-floating planet in a binary relationshipwas obtained. The formation of free-floating planets in binary star relationships cannot be explained well using conventional formation theory, so they are attracting attention as interesting objects for observation.
[▲Figure 1: Image of the binary free-floating planet “JuMBO 24” (Credit: Gemini Observatory & Jon Lomberg)]
■Are there no binary stars on free-floating planets?
When you think of a planet, you probably imagine a celestial body that revolves around a star like the sun. However, in reality, many celestial bodies have been found that have masses comparable to planets that do not revolve around specific celestial bodies such as stars. these are”free floating planet(Free-Floating Planet).
It is believed that free-floating planets originally arose as planets orbiting around stars. However, if the planets come extremely close to each other and their orbits are disturbed, it is thought that some of the planets will break free from the star’s gravity and begin to wander. For this reason, free-floating planets are also called “rogue planets.”
Planets that experience such catastrophic gravitational interactions lose their satellites and companion stars, and it is thought that free-floating planets do not have binary stars. If binary stars are close to each other, there is a low probability that they may exist in a binary relationship, but it is currently considered impossible to distinguish such close binary stars by observation. Masu. For these reasons, it is currently considered impossible to find binaries of free-floating planets.
■Many binary free-floating planet candidates found
[▲Figure 2: An example of JuMBO (JuMBO 32) observed by the James Webb Space Telescope. It appears to be a binary star and has been suggested to have a mass several times that of Jupiter, but it has not been conclusively determined whether it is actually a binary star (Credit: Samuel G Pearson & Mark J McCaughrean, arXiv (2023) Cropped from Figure 3)]
However, in 2023, Samuel G Pearson and Mark J McCaughrean of the ESA (European Space Agency) announced 42 pairs of free-floating planet candidates called JuMBO
that have the possibility of forming binary stars. These candidates originally existed as preliminary candidates in the observation data of the Trapezium in the constellation Orion by the Hubble Space Telescope, and were discovered through additional observations with the James Webb Space Telescope. He was listed as a strong candidate. Two of the 42 pairs may be triple binaries, and all of them are estimated to be binary stars separated by billions to tens of billions of kilometers.
*…It is an abbreviation of “Jupiter Mass Binary Object” which literally means “double Jupiter mass object”.
[▲Figure 3: Photo of the Karl Janski Very Large Interferometric Radio Telescope Group that conducted this observation (Credit: NRAO, AUI & NSF)]
However, the discovery of any binary star candidates cannot be said to be conclusive at this point, so additional observations were necessary. Therefore, Dr. Rodriguez and his three-member research team conducted additional observations of these JuMBOs using VLA.As a result, the onlyJuMBO 24
We succeeded in obtaining observation data regarding “. JuMBO 24 is estimated to be two free-floating planets, each with a mass around 11.5 times that of Jupiter, and located 4.2 billion km (28 au) from each other. Among the 42 JuMBOs listed in the 2023 study, JuMBO 24 has the heaviest total mass and is the closest to Earth. It is currently unknown whether this property is the only reason for the successful observation.
[▲Figure4:ObservationresultsofJuMBO24byVLAThedarkerthebluecolorthestrongertheradiowavesandtheslightlyverticalorientationindicatesthattheycanactuallybeseparatedintotworadiosourcesThewhitesquareisthelocationofJuMBO24asdeterminedbytheWebbSpaceTelescope(Credit:LuisFRodríguezLaurentLoinard&LuisAZapata)Analysis of radio observation data by VLA showed that there are two radio sources in the direction of JuMBO 24, and that there are indeed two celestial objects. From this,JuMBO 24 is likely a free-floating planet in a binary relationship
It will be. As mentioned earlier, the existence of free-floating planets in binary stars has not been predicted by conventional formation theories, and the existence of JuMBO 24 remains a big mystery. JuMBO 24 will be an interesting observation target in solving the mystery.
It is also possible that other candidate objects could not be observed simply because they do not exist, but it may also be due to differences in observation wavelengths. The Webb Space Telescope conducts observations in the infrared region, and the VLA conducts observations in the radio region. Observation using radio waves has a lower resolution than other wavelengths, so it is possible that radio waves cannot distinguish it from noise and are simply invisible. Alternatively, it is possible that the performance of the VLA was insufficient or that the observation was not compatible with the environment of the area being observed. The reason why other binary star candidates could not be observed will become clear through additional observations later.
■JuMBO 24 has many more mysteries
Besides being a binary star, JuMBO 24 also has other mysteries. For example, the radio intensity emitted by JuMBO 24 is much higher than the radio emission of a free-floating planet predicted from its infrared radiation. It is a mystery whether binary stars are the reason for the strong radio emission or if there are other properties.
In addition, analysis of observation data from ALMA, which observes at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths between the VLA and the Webb Space Telescope, did not find any JuMBOs, including JuMBO 24. This may simply be due to a lack of precision in the observational data, so future observations may yield more interesting data. Future observations will be awaited.
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Written by Riri Aya
