Mini planetary systems may orbit cosmic objects that are 100 times smaller than our Sun, research suggests.

Discs of gas and dust, the ingredients needed to create such systems, have been seen circling these relatively small objects, dubbed "planemos".

If the discs were capable of evolving larger aggregations of material, it would blur the definition of the word "planet", researchers said.

The work was presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Canada.

Cosmic newborns
The study is based on observations from European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescopes. It looked at a number of recently identified planemos (an unofficial term sometimes used to describe planetary mass objects).

Located about 450 light-years away in a star-forming region, four of the objects are just a few million years old, making them cosmic "newborns". They have masses between five and 15 times that of Jupiter.



Posted by: Edwin    Source