Strange New 'Twin' Worlds Found

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Friday August 4, 2006 @05:26AM from the galactic-misfits dept.

toomanyairmiles writes "The BBC reports on the the discovery of 'twin worlds' which orbit each other, successfully blurring the line between planets and stars. 'Their existence challenges current theories about the formation of planets and stars.' according to the Journal of Science article which reports their existence. '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.'"

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Stars... by Kaenneth · 2006-08-04 05:30 · Score: 4, Interesting

Stars can only 'ignite' when enough mass accumulates. It would make sense that often there would be chunks of smaller mass just floating around until they scoop up enough matter into their gravity well to start fusion.