free-floating planetary-mass objects Archives

Observed spectra of all the eight objects with JWST NIRSpec (green) and MIRI (orange) normalised to the flux at 2.5µm. Published photometry at near-infrared (red) and mid-infrared wavelengths (blue) is overplotted. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Spectroscopy Of Free-Floating Planetary-Mass Objects And Their Disks With JWST

by Keith CowingJuly 9, 2025July 9, 2025

Free-floating planetary-mass objects (FFPMOs) are known to harbor disks at young ages. Here, we present 1-13 μm spectra for eight young FFPMOs with masses of 5-10 MJup (at ages of […]

(i, i-z) diagram of USco members (left) identified by MiretRoig et al. (2022) and Taurus members (right) from Esplin & Luhman (2019), represented as blue dots. The HST targets are over-plotted as red dots and the VLT targets are orange squares. The Chabrier et al. (2023) isochrones at respectively 5 and 3 Myr and 140 pc are represented by green dashed lines and the corresponding masses are indicated on the right vertical axis. A reddening vector AV=3 mag is also represented, and the planetary mass limit of 13 MJup is indicated. The new binary candidate identified in Taurus is over-plotted as a black open circle. -- astro-ph.SR

Astronomy & Telescopes, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

Multiplicity Of Young Isolated Planetary Mass Objects In Taurus And Upper Scorpius

by Keith CowingJune 19, 2025June 19, 2025

Free-floating planetary mass objects-worlds that roam interstellar space untethered to a parent star-challenge conventional notions of planetary formation and migration, but also of star and brown dwarf formation.

Planet-planet Binary - Grok via Astrobiology.com

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Can Planet-planet Binaries Survive In Star-forming Regions?

by Keith CowingMay 14, 2025May 14, 2025

Significant numbers of free-floating planetary-mass objects have been discovered in nearby star-forming regions by the James Webb Space Telescope, including a substantial number (42) of Jupiter Mass Binary Objects (‘JuMBOs’) […]

Euclid images (log scale) of the proto-brown dwarf candidates J041828 and J041938 from Palau et al. (2012) and Morata et al. (2015). -- astro-ph.SR

Astronomy & Telescopes, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

Free-floating Planetary Mass Objects In LDN 1495 From Euclid Early Release Observations

by Keith CowingMarch 21, 2025March 21, 2025

Context. Substellar objects, including brown dwarfs and free-floating planetary-mass objects, are a significant product of star formation.

The formation of binary PMOs via circumstellar disk encounters. -- Credit DENG Hongping

Astronomy & Telescopes, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Interstellar, Press Release

New Study Reveals How Rogue Planetary-mass Objects Form In Young Star Clusters

by Keith CowingMarch 12, 2025March 12, 2025

A groundbreaking study published in Science Advances sheds new light on the mysterious origins of free-floating planetary-mass objects (PMOs)—celestial bodies with masses between stars and planets.

Example of the background subtraction process applied to the calibrated slope image cutouts between Stage 2 and Stage 3 of the JWST Science Calibration Pipeline. Top panel: Cutout for one source showing the dispersion of the spectrum (central rows). Rows above and below the spectral trail have a purple hue indicative of the background, which increases in strength towards longer wavelengths. Bottom panel: Following background subtraction, the cutout now only shows significant flux from the source. The color scale is the same for both panels. Data inside the shaded regions are ignored when analyzing the 1D spectrum in the following analysis. White pixels are “NaN” values that do not affect the spectral extraction. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

The JWST/NIRISS Deep Spectroscopic Survey for Young Brown Dwarfs and Free-Floating Planets

by Keith CowingAugust 26, 2024August 26, 2024

The discovery and characterization of free-floating planetary-mass objects (FFPMOs) is fundamental to our understanding of star and planet formation. Here we report results from an extremely deep spectroscopic survey of […]