In an exciting Christmas surprise, scientists may have finally figured out what JuMBOs are! These strange objects in space didn’t seem to be planets or stars, and scientists have been puzzled about them for a while. But now, they think they have an answer.
A group of researchers believes that JuMBOs are actually the leftover cores of stars. These cores were “unwrapped” by the powerful energy from massive stars, kind of like how kids tear open presents on Christmas morning. This discovery could help explain a mystery that started in 2023 when the James Webb Space Telescope found 42 pairs of these objects floating around in space.
What made these objects so puzzling is that they weren’t connected to any stars, but still existed in pairs. This made scientists wonder how they could form.
To solve this, Richard Parker from the University of Sheffield and his team looked at an old idea. They thought that the strong radiation from big stars could slowly eat away at the gas around a star, leaving behind a smaller object. This idea helped them understand how JuMBOs might be formed and is a big step in solving this space mystery!