A group of citizen scientists working with a NASA citizen science project called Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 has discovered 95 new brown dwarfs in the sun’s nearby neighborhood. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/brown-dwarfs-cosmic-neighborhood-backyard-worlds-citizen-scientists…
Tag: brown dwarf
1st direct image of 2 giant exoplanets orbiting a sunlike star
For the 1st time ever, astronomers have photographed more than one giant exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star. The planetary system is similar to our solar system, but younger. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/1st-photos-gas-giant-exoplanets-tyc-8998-760-1…
Citizen scientists spot closest young brown dwarf disk yet
Brown dwarfs are the middle child of astronomy, too big to be a planet yet not big enough to be a star. Like their stellar siblings, these objects form from the gravitational collapse of gas and dust. But rather than condensing into a star’s fiery hot nuclear core, brown dwarfs find a more zen-like equilibrium, somehow reaching a stable, milder state…
This brown dwarf might look a lot like Jupiter
The cloud bands on brown dwarf Luhman 16A were found via instruments known as polarimeters. An astronomer said they’re like “… an astronomer’s polarized sunglasses. But instead of trying to block out that glare, we’re trying to measure it.” Source: https://earthsky.org/space/brown-dwarfs-banded-clouds-luhman-16a-vlt…
First-ever measure of brown dwarf wind speed
Using data from both Spitzer and ground-based telescopes, scientists have been able to measure the speed of winds on a brown dwarf for the first time ever. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/brown-dwarf-wind-infrared-radio-spitzer-vla…
Astronomers measure wind speed on a brown dwarf
Astronomers have used the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to make the first measurement of wind speed on a brown dwarf—an object intermediate in mass between a planet and a star. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-04-astronomers-brown-dwarf.html…
Astronomers pinpoint rare binary brown dwarf
Astronomers working on ‘first light’ results from a newly commissioned telescope in Chile made a chance discovery that led to the identification of a rare eclipsing binary brown dwarf system. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-03-astronomers-rare-binary-brown-dwarf.html…
Citizen scientists discover rare cosmic pairing
Citizen scientists have uncovered a bizarre pairing of two brown dwarfs, objects much smaller than the Sun that lack enough mass for nuclear fusion. The discovery, reported in The Astrophysical Journal and confirmed by a scientific team led by astrophysicist Jackie Faherty at the American Museum of Natural History, shows that brown dwarf systems—the formation of which are still poorly understood—can…
Astronomers catch a record-setting X-ray burst
The sudden spike of X-rays released as much energy in 20 seconds as our sun does in nearly 10 days. Turns out it was a massive thermonuclear flash on a pulsar, the crushed remains of a star that exploded as a supernova long ago. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/record-setting-x-ray-burst-j1808-pulsar…
Ultra-short period brown dwarf discovered
An international team of astronomers has detected a new brown dwarf with an ultra-short orbital period that transits an active M-dwarf star. The newfound object, designated NGTS-7Ab, turns out to be the shortest period transiting brown dwarf around a main or pre-main sequence star discovered to date. The finding is detailed in a paper published June 19 on the arXiv pre-print…