Planetary-mass object

Okay, kiddo! Do you know what a planet is? It's a big ball of rock or gas that orbits around a star, like our Earth orbits around the sun.

Well, sometimes astronomers discover objects in space that are similar to planets but are much bigger, like they could be many times the size of Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system. Those super big objects are called planetary-mass objects, because even though they're not officially planets, they have a mass (or weight) that's similar to one.

Just like planets, these objects can be made of rock, gas, ice, or a combination of those. Some are so big that they have their own moons orbiting around them!

But sometimes it's hard to tell if an object is really a planetary-mass object or something else, like a very small star or a really big asteroid. Astronomers have to use telescopes and other fancy equipment to study them and figure it out.

Does that help, little one?