"James Webb Space Telescope Discovers Six Rogue Worlds Drifting in Space: A New Window into Star and Planet Formation"

 The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has made a groundbreaking discovery, spotting six mysterious "rogue worlds" in a young star-forming nebula about 1,000 light-years away. These rogue worlds are planet-like objects that drift through space without being bound to any star. Among the discoveries, the lightest and most fascinating rogue world is surrounded by a dust disc, which researchers believe could form its mini-planetary system.

Wide field view mosaic of NGC1333 with 3 of the newly discovered objects (NN1, NN2, NN3) indicated by green markers. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Scholz, K. Muzic, A. Langeveld, R. Jayawardhana

• Dr. Aleks Scholz from the University of St Andrews, UK, shared that this rogue world might be a miniature planetary system nursery. Unlike typical stars, these objects didn't gather enough mass to trigger nuclear fusion, which powers stars. Instead, they float freely through the cosmos, offering valuable insights into star and planet formation.

• JWST's observations also revealed a brown dwarf—a celestial body larger than planets but smaller than stars—paired with a rare planetary-mass companion. This pair likely formed similarly to binary star systems from clouds fragmenting during contraction.

Surprisingly, the data indicates that these rogue worlds account for approximately 10% of celestial bodies in the NGC 1333 star-forming cluster despite previously being considered rare in our galaxy.

By:- Ranjan

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