"Dream, Dream, Dream! Conduct these dreams into thoughts, and then transform them into action."
- Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
3 Oct 2023
The Universe indeed is full of unanswered questions. Messier 42, the Orion Nebula, which is situated south of Orion's belt, is one of the brightest nebulae in the night sky. —the nebula is a treasure trove for astronomers studying the formation and early evolution of stars.
A new astronomical category may have been introduced with the discovery of dozens of planet-sized objects in the Orion Nebula. The Jupiter-mass binary objects, termed as Jumbos, are free-floating objects that can be seen in stunning photos acquired by the James Webb satellite telescope. The objects violate the traditional definition of a planet because they are not in an orbit around a parent star, despite the fact that they are too small to be stars. The Jumbos have infernal surface temperatures of around 1,000C and are just about 1 million years old, or babies in cosmic terms. However, in the absence of a host star, they will swiftly cool and will briefly experience temperatures that are suitable for life before turning exceedingly cold. They are not anticipated to be a major hope for harboring extraterrestrial life, though, because even during their brief period of temperate climate, the surfaces of gas giants would not support liquid water.
The University of Exeter's head of astrophysics, Prof. Matthew Bate, who was not involved in the study, said: " I don't know how to explain the numerous things they've observed. It appears that all of our current theories are incomplete. It appears that these [things] are being formed by a process that we haven't yet considered."
This kind of discovery is made "pretty infrequently," Bates continued. "Many of us believed we understood star formation rather well ten years ago. We'll learn a lot from this conclusion, which is really very, very surprising."