The vastness of the universe can be truly terrifying if you find yourself alone in its infinite terrain. Scientists around the planet were trying to understand the workings of rogue planets, which do not orbit a massive star, until data from the James Webb Space Telescope, performed by ESAthey discover that some travel as a couple.
Worlds that are not orbiting a massive star, as we do with the Sun, or like any other planetary system, are known as wandering planets. These objects, difficult to see because there is not much light to make them shine, somehow fell out of orbit and were abandoned in the universe.
The THAT (which is the European Space Agency) pointed the lenses of the James Webb Space Telescope towards the Orion Nebula, about 1,350 light years away, and studying the gas cluster found dozens of wandering planets that were traveling accompanied.
They do not orbit a star, but they do interact gravitationally with another world. They are like two planets in love that go together through the immensity. The ESA classifies them as binary objects, and reports that the first analyzes show that they have a mass similar to that of Jupiter, according to a review Bio Bio Chile.
New space images!🤩
The NASA/ESA/CSA James #Webb Space Telescope has added detailed images of the Orion Nebula to our ESASky application.
Zoom into this region with a rich diversity of phenomena including protostars, brown dwarfs and even free-floating planets! pic.twitter.com/In4FQk8hrX
— ESA (@esa) October 2, 2023
The wandering planets
Planets that do not orbit a star are known as wanderers either vagabonds. They are celestial bodies that are not gravitationally linked to any star. This means that they do not orbit a star, but rather travel through space independently.
Theories say that they form in the same way as planets that orbit stars. That is, from clouds of gas and dust that collapse under their own gravity. However, these planets form in regions of space that are not associated with any star.
Wandering planets are very difficult objects to detect. They are very small and dark, and it is difficult to distinguish them from the stars. However, astronomers have discovered a small number of wandering planets in recent years.