Planetary-mass object explained

A planetary-mass object (PMO), planemo,[1] or planetary body is, by geophysical definition of celestial objects, any celestial object massive enough to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium, but not enough to sustain core fusion like a star.[2] [3]

The purpose of this term is to classify together a broader range of celestial objects than 'planet', since many objects similar in geophysical terms do not conform to conventional expectations for a planet. Planetary-mass objects can be quite diverse in origin and location. They include planets, dwarf planets, planetary-mass satellites and free-floating planets, which may have been ejected from a system (rogue planets) or formed through cloud-collapse rather than accretion (sub-brown dwarfs).

Usage in astronomy

While the term technically includes exoplanets and other objects, it is often used for objects with an uncertain nature or objects that do not fit in one specific class. Cases in which the term is often used:

Types

Planetary-mass satellite

See main article: Planetary-mass moon.

The three largest satellites Ganymede, Titan, and Callisto are of similar size or larger than the planet Mercury; these and four more – Io, the Moon, Europa, and Triton – are larger and more massive than the largest and most massive dwarf planets, Pluto and Eris. Another dozen smaller satellites are large enough to have become round at some point in their history through their own gravity, tidal heating from their parent planets, or both. In particular, Titan has a thick atmosphere and stable bodies of liquid on its surface, like Earth (though for Titan the liquid is methane rather than water). Proponents of the geophysical definition of planets argue that location should not matter and that only geophysical attributes should be taken into account in the definition of a planet. The term satellite planet is sometimes used for planet-sized satellites.[10]

Dwarf planets

See main article: Dwarf planet. A dwarf planet is a planetary-mass object that is neither a true planet nor a natural satellite; it is in direct orbit of a star, and is massive enough for its gravity to compress it into a hydrostatically equilibrious shape (usually a spheroid), but has not cleared the neighborhood of other material around its orbit. Planetary scientist and New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, who proposed the term 'dwarf planet', has argued that location should not matter and that only geophysical attributes should be taken into account, and that dwarf planets are thus a subtype of planet. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) accepted the term (rather than the more neutral 'planetoid') but decided to classify dwarf planets as a separate category of object.[11]

Former stars

In close binary star systems, one of the stars can lose mass to a heavier companion. Accretion-powered pulsars may drive mass loss. The shrinking star can then become a planetary-mass object. An example is a Jupiter-mass object orbiting the pulsar PSR J1719−1438.[12] These shrunken white dwarfs may become a helium planet or carbon planet.

Sub-brown dwarfs

See main article: Sub-brown dwarf.

Stars form via the gravitational collapse of gas clouds, but smaller objects can also form via cloud collapse. Planetary-mass objects formed this way are sometimes called sub-brown dwarfs. Sub-brown dwarfs may be free-floating such as Cha 110913−773444[13] and OTS 44,[14] or orbiting a larger object such as 2MASS J04414489+2301513.

Binary systems of sub-brown dwarfs are theoretically possible; Oph 162225-240515 was initially thought to be a binary system of a brown dwarf of 14 Jupiter masses and a sub-brown dwarf of 7 Jupiter masses, but further observations revised the estimated masses upwards to greater than 13 Jupiter masses, making them brown dwarfs according to the IAU working definitions.[15] [16] [17]

Captured planets

Rogue planets in stellar clusters have similar velocities to the stars and so can be recaptured. They are typically captured into wide orbits between 100 and 105 AU. The capture efficiency decreases with increasing cluster volume, and for a given cluster size it increases with the host/primary mass. It is almost independent of the planetary mass. Single and multiple planets could be captured into arbitrary unaligned orbits, non-coplanar with each other or with the stellar host spin, or pre-existing planetary system.[18]

Rogue planets

See main article: Rogue planet.

See also: Five-planet Nice model.

Several computer simulations of stellar and planetary system formation have suggested that some objects of planetary mass would be ejected into interstellar space.[19] Such objects are typically called rogue planets.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Book: David A. . Weintraub . 2014 . 226. Is Pluto a Planet?: A Historical Journey through the Solar System. Princeton University Press . 978-1400852970.
  2. Gibor . Basri. E. M. . Brown. Planetesimals to Brown Dwarfs: What is a Planet?. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. 34 . 193–216 . May 2006. 10.1146/annurev.earth.34.031405.125058. 2006AREPS..34..193B. astro-ph/0608417 . 119338327.
  3. Stern . S. Alan. Levison . Harold F.. H. . Rickman. Regarding the criteria for planethood and proposed planetary classification schemes. Highlights of Astronomy . 12. 208 . 2002. Astronomical Society of the Pacific. San Francisco, CA. 2002HiA....12..205S. 978-1-58381-086-6. 10.1017/S1539299600013289. free.
  4. Gagné . Jonathan . Allers . Katelyn N. . Theissen . Christopher A. . Faherty . Jacqueline K. . Bardalez Gagliuffi . Daniella . Artigau . Étienne . 2018-02-01 . 2MASS J13243553+6358281 Is an Early T-type Planetary-mass Object in the AB Doradus Moving Group . The Astrophysical Journal . 854 . 2 . L27 . 10.3847/2041-8213/aaacfd . 1802.00493 . 2018ApJ...854L..27G . 0004-637X . free .
  5. Best . William M. J. . Liu . Michael C. . Magnier . Eugene A. . Bowler . Brendan P. . Aller . Kimberly M. . Zhang . Zhoujian . Kotson . Michael C. . Burgett . W. S. . Chambers . K. C. . Draper . P. W. . Flewelling . H. . Hodapp . K. W. . Kaiser . N. . Metcalfe . N. . Wainscoat . R. J. . 2017-03-01 . A Search for L/T Transition Dwarfs with Pan-STARRS1 and WISE. III. Young L Dwarf Discoveries and Proper Motion Catalogs in Taurus and Scorpius-Centaurus . The Astrophysical Journal . 837 . 1 . 95 . 10.3847/1538-4357/aa5df0 . 1702.00789 . 2017ApJ...837...95B . 0004-637X . free .
  6. Scholz . Aleks . Muzic . Koraljka . Jayawardhana . Ray . Almendros-Abad . Victor . Wilson . Isaac . 2023-05-01 . Disks around Young Planetary-mass Objects: Ultradeep Spitzer Imaging of NGC 1333 . The Astronomical Journal . 165 . 5 . 196 . 10.3847/1538-3881/acc65d . 2303.12451 . 2023AJ....165..196S . 0004-6256 . free .
  7. Miles . Brittany E. . Biller . Beth A. . Patapis . Polychronis . Worthen . Kadin . Rickman . Emily . Hoch . Kielan K. W. . Skemer . Andrew . Perrin . Marshall D. . Whiteford . Niall . Chen . Christine H. . Sargent . B. . Mukherjee . Sagnick . Morley . Caroline V. . Moran . Sarah E. . Bonnefoy . Mickael . 2023-03-01 . The JWST Early-release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems II: A 1 to 20 μm Spectrum of the Planetary-mass Companion VHS 1256-1257 b . The Astrophysical Journal . 946 . 1 . L6 . 10.3847/2041-8213/acb04a . 2209.00620 . 2023ApJ...946L...6M . 0004-637X . free .
  8. Faherty . Jacqueline K. . Gagné . Jonathan . Popinchalk . Mark . Vos . Johanna M. . Burgasser . Adam J. . Schümann . Jörg . Schneider . Adam C. . Kirkpatrick . J. Davy . Meisner . Aaron M. . Kuchner . Marc J. . Bardalez Gagliuffi . Daniella C. . Marocco . Federico . Caselden . Dan . Gonzales . Eileen C. . Rothermich . Austin . 2021-12-01 . A Wide Planetary Mass Companion Discovered through the Citizen Science Project Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 . The Astrophysical Journal . 923 . 1 . 48 . 10.3847/1538-4357/ac2499 . 2112.04678 . 2021ApJ...923...48F . 0004-637X . free .
  9. Fontanive . Clémence . Allers . Katelyn N. . Pantoja . Blake . Biller . Beth . Dubber . Sophie . Zhang . Zhoujian . Dupuy . Trent . Liu . Michael C. . Albert . Loïc . 2020-12-01 . A Wide Planetary-mass Companion to a Young Low-mass Brown Dwarf in Ophiuchus . The Astrophysical Journal . 905 . 2 . L14 . 10.3847/2041-8213/abcaf8 . 2011.08871 . 2020ApJ...905L..14F . 0004-637X . free .
  10. Web site: Villard . Ray . 2010-05-14 . Should Large Moons Be Called 'Satellite Planets'? . https://web.archive.org/web/20100516201931/http://news.discovery.com/space/should-large-moons-be-called-satellite-planets.html . 2010-05-16 . 2011-11-04 . Discovery News.
  11. Web site: Resolution B5 Definition of a Planet in the Solar System . IAU 2006 General Assembly . International Astronomical Union . January 26, 2008.
  12. 1108.5201 . 2011Sci...333.1717B . 10.1126/science.1208890 . Transformation of a Star into a Planet in a Millisecond Pulsar Binary . 2011 . Bailes . M. . 4 . Bates . S. D. . Bhalerao . V. . Bhat . N. D. R. . Burgay . M. . Burke-Spolaor . S. . d'Amico . N. . Johnston . S. . Keith . M. J. . Science . 333 . 6050 . 1717–20 . 21868629. 206535504 .
  13. Astrophysical Journal . Luhman . K. L. . Adame, Lucía . D'Alessio, Paola . Calvet, Nuria. Nuria Calvet . Discovery of a Planetary-Mass Brown Dwarf with a Circumstellar Disk . 635 . 1 . L93 . 10.1086/498868 . 2005 . 2005ApJ...635L..93L. astro-ph/0511807 . 11685964.
  14. Joergens. V.. 4. Bonnefoy. M.. Liu. Y.. Bayo. A.. Wolf. S.. Chauvin. G.. Rojo. P.. OTS 44: Disk and accretion at the planetary border. Astronomy & Astrophysics. 558. 7. 2013. 10.1051/0004-6361/201322432. 2013A&A...558L...7J. 1310.1936. L7. 118456052.
  15. The Wide Brown Dwarf Binary Oph 1622–2405 and Discovery of A Wide, Low Mass Binary in Ophiuchus (Oph 1623–2402): A New Class of Young Evaporating Wide Binaries? . Astrophysical Journal . Close, Laird M. . 660 . 2 . 1492–1506 . 10.1086/513417 . 2007 . astro-ph/0608574 . 2007ApJ...660.1492C . 4 . Zuckerman . B. . Song . Inseok . Barman . Travis . Marois . Christian . Rice . Emily L. . Siegler . Nick . MacIntosh . Bruce . Becklin . E. E. . 15170262 .
  16. Luhman . Kevin L. . Kevin Luhman . Allers . Katelyn N. . Jaffe . Daniel T. . Cushing . Michael C. . Williams . Kurtis A. . Slesnick . Catherine L. . Vacca . William D. . April 2007 . . Ophiuchus 1622-2405: Not a Planetary-Mass Binary . 659 . 2 . 1629–1636 . 10.1086/512539 . 2007ApJ...659.1629L . astro-ph/0701242 . 11153196 .
  17. Web site: Britt . Robert Roy . 2004-09-10 . Likely First Photo of Planet Beyond the Solar System . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20110127192049/https://www.space.com/326-photo-planet-solar-system.html . Jan 27, 2011 . 2008-08-23 . Space.
  18. https://arxiv.org/abs/1202.2362 On the origin of planets at very wide orbits from the re-capture of free floating planets
  19. Lissauer . J. J. . Timescales for Planetary Accretion and the Structure of the Protoplanetary disk . Icarus . 69 . 2 . 249–265 . 1987 . 10.1016/0019-1035(87)90104-7 . 1987Icar...69..249L. 2060/19870013947 . free .

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