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Astronomers have put up a novel theory on the formation of free-floating planetary-mass objects, declaring they originate from collisions of circumstellar discs in dense star clusters.
Rogue planets are created by catastrophic disc impacts in young star clusters.
A group of astronomers has found new information on planetary-mass objects (PMOs), which are odd celestial things that don’t have a host star and float freely through space. The formation of these cosmic drifters may be explained by a novel theory that researchers have put forth using sophisticated simulations.
Scientists have long been baffled by PMOs, often discovered in young star clusters like Orion’s Trapezium. Previously, these objects were assumed to be failed stars or expelled planets because their masses were less than 13 times that of Jupiter. These theories were unable to account for the large number of PMOs, their frequent binary pairings, or their coordinated star movement.
A multinational team, led by Dr Deng Hongping of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, modelled interactions between circumstellar disks—rings of gas and dust surrounding young stars—using high-resolution simulations. According to their study, which was published in Science Advances, collisions between these discs in dense star clusters may result in PMO formation.
It was demonstrated by the simulations that gravitational forces produce long “tidal bridges” of gas when two circumstellar discs pass within 300–400 astronomical units (AU) of one another. Following their collapse, these bridges split into compact cores and dense filaments. PMOs about ten times the mass of Jupiter are formed when these filaments accumulate sufficient material.
In addition, the study discovered that up to 14 per cent of PMOs originate in binary or triplet systems, which explains why these objects often occur in pairs. The profusion of PMOs in crowded star clusters may be explained by the possibility that hundreds of them are produced by frequent disc collisions.
PMOs are not like ejected planets in a few respects. The material from their parent discs is retained, and they move in time with neighbouring stars. These discs’ metal-poor periphery, where heavier components are rare, are reflected in their composition. Moons or planets may form around some PMOs since their gas discs can be as broad as 200 AU.
Researchers from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, the University of California Santa Cruz, and the University of Hong Kong participated in the study. Subsequent investigations will concentrate on examining PMOs in other star clusters to validate their chemical composition and production mechanism.
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