Last year, using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers made the startling discovery of some free-floating, planetary-mass objects in the Orion nebula that threw their ideas of planet and star formation into doubt. And now, new research has further deepened the mystery around these so-called Jupiter-mass binary objects, or JuMBOs.
JuMBOs aren't stars, but aren't really planets either. Mark McCaughrean, senior science advisor at the European Space Agency (ESA), and colleagues originally located the objects in the Orion nebula. This nebula is a star birthing region, also known as Messier 45, and sits around 1,350 light years from Earth.
