With James Webb telescope, scientists crack down the mysteries of SIMP 0136.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has spotted a mysterious, free-floating object traveling through interstellar space just 20 light-years from Earth.

Dubbed SIMP 0136, the "planetary-mass" object is approximately 13 times the mass of Jupiter and rotates at a remarkable speed, completing a full spin every 2.4 hours, the agency specified in a statement.

Using the JWST's advanced infrared capabilities, an international team of researchers detected "complex atmospheric features" on SIMP 0136, including possible cloud layers and temperature variations.

More to read:
JWST spots large planets free-floating in space

The findings, detailed in a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, suggest that this rare object shares some characteristics with gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn, which also exhibit multiple cloud layers and high-altitude hot spots.

However, unlike those planets, SIMP 0136 drifts through space alone, without orbiting a star. Scientists are also considering the possibility that it could be a brown dwarf — an object larger than a planet but too small to sustain hydrogen fusion like a star.

The JWST's Near-Infrared Spectrograph allowed the team to observe a broader spectrum of infrared light. It compared hundreds of light curves with atmospheric models and found evidence of patchy clouds and bright "hot spots" that may be linked to auroral activity. Other light curves suggest the presence of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.

More to read:
The Milky Way contains trillions of orphan planets

Starless planets are not rare in the universe and were earlier discovered by the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes with dozens in the Milky Way, but with the JWST astrophysicists are able to scan their properties like never before.

Knowing what they are made of, how they form and where they come from can provide crucial insight on planetary formation and guide future searches for similar objects across our galaxy.

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