![]() This proof is sure to add fuel to the controversy of how such objects were born. Roche, "but it can also aid our understanding of the star formation process, which is one of the major mysteries in astronomy." "The identification and study of these objects is extremely interesting in itself," added Dr. Our new results provide the first steps in the exploration of their physical properties." These planetary mass objects can only be seen because they are very young and still warm after the process of formation.ĭr Lucas commented, "It's exciting to find these planet-sized objects floating around in space, unlike planets such as our Earth which orbit a star. This confirms that these objects are indeed young, low-mass bodies, and that the faintest of them are of planetary mass. Their measurements of the spectrum of the infrared light from 20 objects in the Nebula show the characteristic signature of water vapour. On Tuesday 3 April, the same pair will announce at the UK National Astronomy Meeting in Cambridge that they have confirmed their discovery of 'free floating planets' in the Orion Nebula. Patrick Roche (Oxford University) controversially announced last year that they had directly observed 13 faint points of light in Orion (a giant stellar nursery where thousands of stars are being born) which appeared to have masses closer to those of the giant planets - a few times more massive than Jupiter in our Solar System - than the stars. Philip Lucas (University of Hertfordshire) and Dr. In particular, the smallest fragments that can collapse to form very low mass stars or sub-stellar objects have not yet been identified.ĭr. However, the details of the star formation process are poorly understood. ![]() Astronomers have known for many years that stars form when the cores of giant clouds of cold molecular material fragment and collapse.
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