The planemo twins: Two peculiar planet-like worlds
A pair of strange new worlds that blur the boundaries between planets and stars have been discovered beyond our Solar System.
A few dozen such objects have been identified in recent years but this is the first set of "twins".
Dubbed "planemos", they circle each other rather than orbiting a star.
Their existence challenges current theories about the formation of planets and stars, astronomers report in the journal Science.
"This is a truly remarkable pair of twins - each having only about 1% the mass of our Sun," said Ray Jayawardhana of the University of Toronto, co-author of the Science paper.
"Its mere existence is a surprise, and its origin and fate a bit of a mystery."
'Double planet'
The pair belongs to what some astronomers believe is a new class of planet-like objects floating through space; so-called planetary mass objects, or "planemos", which are not bound to stars.
Now we're curious to find out whether such pairs are common or rare. The answer could shed light on how free-floating planetary-mass objects form
Valentin Ivanov
They appear to have been forged from a contracting gas cloud, in a similar way to stars, but are much too cool to be true stars.
And while they have similar masses to many of the giant planets discovered beyond our Solar System (the largest weighs in at 14 times the mass of Jupiter and the other is about seven times more massive), they are not thought to be true planets either.
"We are resisting the temptation to call it a 'double planet' because this pair probably didn't form the way that planets in our Solar System did," said co-researcher Valentin Ivanov of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Santiago, Chile.
'Amazing diversity'
The two objects have similar spectra and colours, suggesting that they formed at the same time about a million years ago.
They are separated by about six times the distance between the Sun and Pluto, and can be found in the Ophiuchus star-forming region some 400 light years away. They go under the official name Oph 162225-240515, or Oph 1622 for short.
"Recent discoveries have revealed an amazing diversity of worlds out there," said Dr Jayawardhana. "Still, the Oph 1622 pair stands out as one of the most intriguing, if not peculiar."
His colleague, Dr Ivanov, said they were curious to find out whether such pairs are common or rare.
"The answer could shed light on how free-floating planetary-mass objects form," he added.
Oph 1622 was discovered using the ESO's New Technology Telescope at La Silla, Chile. Follow-up studies were conducted with the ESO's Very LargeTelescope.
Fascinating-Huh! What Your Naked Eye Sees Thru **Scientist Telescope,i.e. If You Could ACTUALLY Go There Look Down On (Planned ) Planets They Would Not Even Look Be As Seen Thru Telescope_
Remember Buddha Sez All Is But An Illusion,i.e. In The Eye's Of (God) He Will No More Let You See Than Anything Else He Created Out Of Mind!
** Scientist Is All Assuming It's Twin Planets...AND:
If They Spent This Much Time And Our $TAX MONIES$ On Solving Planet Earth' Problems LIKE: 15 to 20 Tons Of Space Debri,Satelites,Junk Floating Around Us-Burning Up Creating Space Atomized Dust(We All Breathe) That's Slowly Killing Us All Off!
Truly fascinating - yet again, Peter - I wonder just how much 'is out there' that we no so little of - and I wonder if this discovery might help our two heroes in my post today somehow!
Reviewed by Jerry Bolton (Reader)
Reviewed on August 4, 2006
Good, now we know where to send Cindy Sheehan!!!
Reviewed by Dove JoAnne Cromp (Reader)
Reviewed on August 4, 2006
This is simply incredible and OUR FATHER in Heaven IS A MIRACLE working God Yeshuah Shama. Nothing is impossible for God alone. We in human terms cannot fatham complelty His mighty abilityand authority. Just when we seem to doubt the hugest things to us, they are NOTHING to Him to create miracles at the snap of His hand, boom, done, millions of world's. I am a firm true believer that God every second is creating massive universes forever.Is that not INCREDIBLY MIND BLOWING?? He breathes unto the universes and SPEAKS PROPHETICALY And we still doubt our personal situation when we have no money to pay our electric bill..Come ON! There is NOTHING to difficult for our Jehovah Shama. We always somehow get back every thing that was taken from us!!!!! There is nothing to small He cannot do. I love this scripture in Jeremiah 1:5~ I knew you before you were formed in your mother's womb.I chose and apointed you as my spokesman for the world. AMEN~~~ That is the most precious and deeply awesome scripture and is my fav. All the living miracle we we see the WORD became FLESH.The word was prophesieded by great old testiment and todays prophets that in the end tells us all, a new world, a new universe at the snap of His finger, in our carnal life it all shows WE MUST see nothings too hard for Him...Halleluja
May we always continue to see the miracles we POWERFULY are, along with universes..And may above all else declair it to the lost sheep...
Where do viruses, such as Ebola and HIV, come from and why they are so aggressive? This book changed tenets of evolutionary virology, developing the concepts of aggressive symbiosis and plague culling, which explain much of the horror of plague virus
Our human genome is full of viruses similar to HIV-1. These have played an important role in human evolution and still play an important role in human embryology and day-to-day chemistry. Just how important are they to our evolution past and future?
Where do viruses, such as Ebola and HIV, come from and why they are so aggressive? This book changed tenets of evolutionary virology, developing the concepts of aggressive symbiosis and plague culling, which explain much of the horror of plague virus
Now we're curious to find out whether such pairs are common or rare. The answer could shed light on how free-floating planetary-mass objects form 
Remember Buddha Sez All Is But An Illusion,i.e. In The Eye's Of (God) He Will No More Let You See Than Anything Else He Created Out Of Mind!
** Scientist Is All Assuming It's Twin Planets...AND:
If They Spent This Much Time And Our $TAX MONIES$ On Solving Planet Earth' Problems LIKE: 15 to 20 Tons Of Space Debri,Satelites,Junk Floating Around Us-Burning Up Creating Space Atomized Dust(We All Breathe) That's Slowly Killing Us All Off!
TRASK
Love and Peace, B&R
May we always continue to see the miracles we POWERFULY are, along with universes..And may above all else declair it to the lost sheep...
Myrna
Thanks for the article.