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Astronomer Ray Jayawardhana of the University of Toronto and his international team of colleagues surveyed the optical spectra of seven exoplanets in two studies. One focused on six planemos, or planetary mass objects, that float freely through space without a specific relationship to a star. The other study looked at the exoplanet locked in a binary system with a failed star that has just eight percent of the mass of our sun. The exoplanets in both studies bore the infrared emissions associated with dusty disks... Such disks are thought to be planetary nurseries, giving rise to satellites over time as...

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.

Strange 'twin' new worlds found 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...