The Press Stories
Scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) have made an astonishing discovery using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. A team of researchers from the ESA have found free-floating objects the size of Jupiter, called ‘JuMBOs’, in the Orion Nebula, which is the closest star-forming region to Earth.
This discovery challenges the previous understanding of how stars and planets are formed. Scientists had believed that nebulas could not create planet-sized objects. The presence of JuMBOs in the Orion Nebula has left researchers baffled and curious about the formation process.
According to Professor Mark McCaughrean, a senior adviser at the ESA, JuMBOs are approximately a million years old and have surface temperatures of around 1,000 degrees Celsius. Unlike planets, which maintain consistent temperatures from the energy they receive from stars, JuMBOs rapidly cool down and freeze.
JuMBOs primarily consist of gas and are unlikely to support life. However, their formation process remains a mystery. There are multiple hypotheses for how they formed, including the possibility that they originated in areas too sparse to create stars, or that they were initially meant to orbit stars but were ejected for unknown reasons.
Currently, scientists are favoring the hypothesis that JuMBOs were ejected from star-forming regions. However, further research is needed to provide definitive answers and unravel the secrets behind their formation.
The discovery of paired planet-sized objects in a nebula is unprecedented and has surprised astronomers. The Orion Nebula, located 1,350 light years away from Earth, has been studied for years to observe the formation and evolution of celestial objects. Now, with the discovery of JuMBOs, scientists have even more reason to delve deeper into the mysteries of the nebula.
This astounding finding opens up new possibilities in the field of astrophysics and challenges our current understanding of planetary formation. It also highlights the importance of space exploration and the need for advanced telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope in uncovering the secrets of the universe.
