January 11, 2021
Astronomers have obtained one of the best images yet of a brown dwarf, an object in a mass range midway between stars and planets. This brown dwarf – called HD 33632 Ab – lies 86 light-years from our sun.
Brown dwarf HD 33632 Ab is the object labeled b in this image from the Subaru Telescope. The other object – behind the occulting disk and labeled with a plus sign – is a regular star. The brown dwarf orbits this star at a distance of about 20 AU, or 20 Earth-sun distances. That’s similar to the distance from our sun to the planet Uranus. Image via T. Currie/ NAOJ/ NASA-Ames/ Subaru Telescope.
NASA news: Astronomer explains the importance of brown-dwarf star discovery econotimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from econotimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
| UPDATED: 11:44, Thu, Dec 17, 2020
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Space experts this week released an image of a brown dwarf dubbed HD 33632 Ab orbiting a Sun-like star 86 light-years away. Brown dwarfs are a class of celestial objects smaller than stars but far larger than giant planets. They are often described as “failed stars” because they are not quite big enough to ignite nuclear fusion in their cores and shine like stars.
HD 33632Ab detections in 2020 (top panels) and 2018 (bottom panels). Image credit: Currie
et al., doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/abc631.
Brown dwarfs are cool, dim objects that have a size between that of a gas giant and that of a Sun-like star.
Sometimes called failed stars, these objects are too small to sustain hydrogen fusion reactions at their cores, yet they have star-like attributes.
Typically, brown dwarfs have masses between 11-16 Jupiters (the approximate mass at which deuterium fusion can be sustained) and 75-80 Jupiters (the approximate mass to sustain hydrogen fusion).
“This is the first time we have found a brown dwarf by looking around a star that is being tugged across the sky,” said Dr. Timothy Brandt, a researcher in the Department of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Direct image of newly discovered brown dwarf captured phys.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from phys.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.