Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have peered into the atmosphere of a cosmic body that could be a rogue planet or a “failed star.” Either way, the world wanders the cosmos without a parent. The cosmic orphan, or “free-floating planetary-mass object,” designated SIMP 0136 drifts through the universe around 20 light-years from … Read more
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s super Neptune! But this Superman-mimicking planet is not blasting through space on its own. It is being dragged along by its parent star. NASA scientists have discovered what they suspect is the hypervelocity star racing through space with a Neptune-like planet in tow. The system … Read more
Astronomers may have inadvertently complicated the mystery of how strange “roasting marshmallow” planets form. Using the Gemini South telescope, researchers found that the “hot and puffy” ultra-hot Jupiter planet WASP-121b may have formed closer to its star than previously believed, challenging what we know about how planets form. Since the discovery of the first planet … Read more
Planets can differ from the swirling envelopes of gas and dust from which they are born, astronomers have found. The revelation seems to indicate that the planet formation model favored by scientists may be overly simple. A team led by researchers from Northwestern University in Illinois made this discovery while observing a still-forming planet and … Read more