Using the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have peered into the atmosphere of a mysterious object that travels lonely through our galaxy. SIMP 0136, which has a mass 13 times greater than Jupiter’s, could be either a rogue planet ejected from its system or a brown dwarf – a “failed star” that never managed to start thermonuclear reactions.
The researchers used the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) at James Webb to break down the light from the object into different wavelengths. This technique, similar to the splitting of light by a prism, allowed us to study the composition of SIMP 0136’s atmosphere. “If we were observing the Earth from afar, changes in colors would reveal features of the oceans, soils, or vegetation,” explains Philip Muirhead of Boston University.
SIMP 0136 impresses with its rotational speed: a complete rotation around the axis takes only 2.4 hours. This provided the telescope with a quick and complete map of the light changes. The data indicate an exotic atmosphere with layers of clouds: the bottom layer contains iron particles, the top layer contains silicate grains (similar to terrestrial rocks). Also the accumulations of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, which can be formed by chemical reactions, have been detected.
“It’s like a galactic Wild West,” jokes study leader Johanna Vos of Trinity College, ”The chemical composition of the atmosphere varies with place and time, so one measurement doesn’t give a complete picture. For example, methane or CO₂ levels can vary significantly between neighborhoods.”
Located 20 light-years from Earth, SIMP 0136 remains a mystery. If it’s a brown dwarf, it’s forever frozen in an intermediate state between a star and a planet. If it is a wandering fugitive exoplanet – it was thrown out of its home system by a gravitational shock, and now it wanders in the depths of the Milky Way without a stellar “shelter”.
Earlier we reported on how to find exoplanets and if life can exist on them.
According to webbtelescope.org
