Posted on 08/30/2011 3:08:12 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: This cosmic snapshot composed with image data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite captures a multitude of faint stars and distant galaxies toward the constellation Lyra at wavelengths longer than visible light. But the object circled at the center is not quite a star. Cataloged as WISE 1828+2650, it lies within 40 light-years of the Sun and is currently the coldest brown dwarf known. A brown dwarf begins like a star, with the gravitational collapse of a dense cloud of gas and dust, but is not massive enough to achieve the core temperatures and densities that trigger hydrogen fusion, the stable source of a star's energy. Instead the failed star ultimately cools and emits most of its light at infrared wavelengths. Remarkably, brown dwarfs are roughly the size of the planet Jupiter. How cold is WISE 1828+2650? While brown dwarfs have measured surface temperatures of up to 1,400 degrees C (2,600 degress F), this brown dwarf , assigned to spectral class Y, has the estimated temperature of a warm room, less than about 27 degrees C (80 degrees F).
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, WISE]
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I never suspected that someone would toss that in.
I thought the coldest brown dwarf was DeFreezy.
"Read my lips. No new axes".
The Universe is not without levity!
Lots of Gravity too.
This star sounds like a gaseous planet without any solid mass. Where is the line between a cold brown dwarf and a rogue planet?
arbitrary size threshold
"The Republicans reveal their new tax strategy!".
Does that mean that all the hundreds of other little, green dots are also in the “warm room” temperature range?
And no dwarf tossing, Civ.
Hey, Gimli was anything but cold towards Galadriel!
Oh so many ways to go with this.
60% of which would get me a time out.
I read the headline and thought it was thread about Eric Holder.
Better yet, Celo Green.
Lots of Gravity too.
Everything has its ups and downs
True,
except maybe in a singularity.
Let’s give that a try. You fiiirrrrrssssssttttttttttt. ;-)
Which gets me to wondering. If you introduced a brown dwarf to a singularity does it just sorta elongate and start circling until the thing gets sucked down? Something you KNOW will happen with a singularity. But in an average ordinary life one can only HOPE happens?
A star is a star, a planet is an inert non-star. The gas giant planets in our system probably have some kind of solid core, albiet small. Neptune’s is larger than Uranus (had to work in the latter, because you just know someone wants to get smart with it), although Uranus is larger. Jupiter’s rocky core exceeds the size of the Earth, but the total mass of Jupiter is 318 x Earth masses.
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