Astronomers have found that giant free floating #planets, sometimes called rogue planets or substellar objects, have the potential to form their own miniature planetary systems without the need for a #star.

Free floating planets are challenging to observe, as they are very dim and radiate mostly in the infrared. And yet, they hold the key to important questions in astrophysics.

Current research suggests that these are the lowest mass objects formed like stars from the collapse of giant gas clouds.

The new work characterizes these objects in depth, and confirms that they have masses around the same size as Jupiter.

Some of them also have excess emissions in the infrared caused by warm dust in their immediate vicinity. This is the characteristic sign of disks, flattened structures which are the birthplaces of planets.

Observations also show emission from silicate grains in the disks, with clear signs of dust growth and crystallization—the typical first steps in the formation of rocky planets.

#exoplanets #astronomy
https://phys.org/news/2025-08-giant-free-planets-planetary.html

A small, dark, #nebula looks isolated near the center of this telescopic close-up.

The wedge-shaped cosmic cloudlet lies within a relatively crowded region of #space though.

About 7000 light-years distant and filled with glowing gas and an embedded cluster of young stars, the region is known as M16 or the Eagle Nebula.

Hubble's iconic images of the Eagle Nebula include the famous star-forming Pillars of Creation, towering structures of interstellar gas and dust 4 to 5 light-years long.

But this small dark nebula, known to some as a Bok globule, is a fraction of a light-year across.

The Bok globule stands out in silhouette against the expansive background of M16's diffuse glow.

Found scattered within emission nebulae and #star clusters, Bok globules are small interstellar clouds of cold molecular gas and obscuring dust that also form stars within their dense, collapsing cores.

#astronomy
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250801.html

TUXEDO Stellaris 16 - Gen7 - AMD

Ryzen 9 9955HX3D meets RTX 5090: Performance From Another Star

https://tuxedocomputers.com/en/TUXEDO-Stellaris-16-Gen7-AMD

Betelgeuse, one of the most familiar stars in the sky, may have a hidden companion star orbiting it

Astronomers have observed what they believe to be a never-before-seen companion star orbiting Betelgeuse, a pulsating red supergiant…
#NewsBeep #News #Space #Betelgeuse #CA #Canada #companionstar #JaredGoldberg #redsupergiantstar #Science #star #SteveHowell #supergiantstar
https://www.newsbeep.com/ca/26061/

Hidden cozied up to #Betelgeuse, a bright red #star in the constellation Orion, astronomers may have finally found the giant star’s long-sought companion.

This close-orbiting partner, first postulated over a century ago, matches some predictions and adds another piece to the puzzle of the mysterious supergiant star.

The companion appears to orbit the supergiant at a distance just four times that between Earth and the sun, putting the companion within Betelgeuse’s expansive outer #atmosphere.

#astronomy
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/betelgeuse-companion-star-revealed

Pour la premiere fois, une image inédite, prise avec le #VLT de l' #ESO, montre une possible #planète en train de #naître autour de la jeune #étoile HD 135344B.

#astronomie #planet #star

https://www.futura-sciences.com/sciences/actualites/exoplanete-ces-images-inedites-revelent-scene-cosmique-humanite-navait-encore-jamais-reussi-capturer-123971/

Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i reveals never-before-seen companion to Betelgeuse, solving millennia-old mystery

https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2523/

Credit image :International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; Image Processing: M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)

Astronomers may have caught a still-forming #planet in action, carving out an intricate pattern in the gas and dust that surrounds its young host #star.

They observed a planetary disc with prominent spiral arms, finding clear signs of a planet nestled in its inner regions.

This is the first time astronomers have detected a planet candidate embedded inside a disc spiral.

#astronomy #exoplanets
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2513/

https://www.europesays.com/uk/279303/ CHEOPS discovers exoplanet triggering explosive flares on host star #CharacterizingExoplanetsSatellite #cheops #esa #EuropeanSpaceAgency #exoplanet #flare #Heliophysics #Planet #Science #solar #SolarFlare #Space #Star #sun #TESS #UK #UnitedKingdom