This is an artist’s impression of what a twin planemo system might look like. The two objects are still very young and are probably surrounded by a disc of material. For clarity, the image is not to scale to Oph 1622, the system just discovered as the size of the discs and the separation between the two objects would make them very tiny.
ESO
August 9, 2006
Using the European Southern Observatory’s New Technology at La Silla, Chile, astronomers have identified two planetary-mass objects, or planemos, that orbit each other without a star. This week, Astronomy speaks with Ray Jayawardhana, leader of the team that found this odd pairing. He shares his unique, firsthand experience from the discovery, sheds light on how this could influence our understanding of planetary formation, and discusses where the team goes from here.
Using the European Southern Observatory’s New Technology at La Silla, Chile, astronomers have identified two planetary-mass objects, or planemos, that orbit each other without a star. This week, Astronomy speaks with Ray Jayawardhana, leader of the team that found this odd pairing. He shares his unique, firsthand experience from the discovery, sheds light on how this could influence our understanding of planetary formation, and discusses where the team goes from here.
Visit Ray Jayawardhana’s web page.
After you listen, e-mail us here and let us know what you think.
