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Western space scientists identify fastest-spinning “failed stars” ever found
Using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, a team led by Western space scientists Megan Tannock and Stanimir Metchev has identified the three fastest-spinning brown dwarfs ever found. More massive than most planets but not quite heavy enough to ignite like stars, brown dwarfs are cosmic in-betweeners. And though they aren’t as well-known as stars and planets to most people, they are thought to number in the billions in our galaxy.
Megan Tannock
In a study appearing in the Astronomical Journal, the international research team that made the new speed measurements argue that these three rapid rotators could be approaching a spin speed limit for all brown dwarfs, beyond which they would break apart. The rapidly rotating brown dwarfs are all about the same diameter as Jupiter but between 40 and 70 times more massive. They each rotate about once per hour, while the next-fastest known bro
Caught speeding: Clocking the fastest-spinning brown dwarfs
April 7th 2021, 2:29 pm
More massive than most planets but not quite heavy enough to ignite like stars, brown dwarfs are cosmic in-betweeners
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Using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have identified the three fastest-spinning brown dwarfs ever found.
More massive than most planets but not quite heavy enough to ignite like stars, brown dwarfs are cosmic in-betweeners. And though they aren’t as well known as stars and planets to most people, they are thought to number in the billions in our galaxy.
In a study appearing in the