NASA's James Webb Space Telescope identifies 'tiniest free-floating brown dwarf'

UPI / NASA ^ | DEC. 13, 2023 / 2:45 PM | By Patrick Hilsman

[Red Badger]

Researchers from Penn State University and the European Space Agency havr located the smallest known brown dwarf by using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Photo courtesy of the European Space Agency

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dec. 13 (UPI) -- NASA said its James Webb Space Telescope has spotted the "tiniest free-floating brown dwarf" ever identified.

"Brown dwarfs are objects that straddle the dividing line between stars and planets," the space agency said in a press release Wednesday,

"They form like stars," NASA said. However, unlike stars, Brown dwarfs don't have enough mass to cause nuclear fusion in their cores the way stars do.

Researchers Kevin Luhman of Penn State University and Catarina Alves de Oliviera of the European Space Agency located the brown dwarf by focusing on the relatively young IC 348 star cluster.

"This cluster is young, only about 5 million years old. As a result, any brown dwarfs would still be relatively bright in infrared light, glowing from the heat of their formation," NASA said.

The researchers identified the brown dwarf using the telescope's near-infrared camera and used the near-Infrared spectrograph microshutter array to examine the identified areas.

NASA said it hopes that by observing the brown dwarf, researchers can gain insight into the formation of stars and understand more about massive exoplanets, which have similar characteristics to brown dwarfs.

"A free-floating brown dwarf is easier to study than a giant exoplanet since the latter is hidden within the glare of its host star," NASA said.

Scientists hope to learn more about how Brown dwarfs form out of gas, as they have far less mass than stars.

"We have to ask, how does the star formation process operate at such very, very small masses?" de Olveira said.

[Red Badger]

Webb Ping!...................

[PGR88]

[FlingWingFlyer]

The words “White House press secretary” popped into my mind. I haven’t a clue why.

[I-ambush]

That’s racist and size-ist !!

[alexander_busek]

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope identifies 'tiniest free-floating brown dwarf'

Sorry! Couldn't resist!

Regards,

[william clark]

Shouldn’t it be “little person of color”?

[Magnum44]

Brown Dwarf? What you talkin' bout, Willis?

[AnglePark]

[SuperLuminal]

Why do they have JWST aimed at the border with Mexico?

[AnglePark]

THAT'S what I meant to post...

[castlebrew]

Currently in discussions for next president of an Ivy League college, pending a perfunctory plagiarism check.

[Telepathic Intruder]

"Brown dwarfs don't have enough mass to cause nuclear fusion in their cores the way stars do."

One of the defining characteristics of brown dwarfs is that they do in fact produce nuclear fusion, but using deuterium which is only about 20 ppm of hydrogen. It's enough to make them glow brightly in infrared which is why we can detect them. This occurs in Jupiter-like objects between about 13 and 75 solar mass.

[Red Badger]

Seem like to me that they could grow and accrete more material as time goes by and eventually become a shiny new star..........................

[Telepathic Intruder]

Between 13 and 75 Jupiter mass, I mean.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Some do, of course. That’s how all stars form.

[Flatus I. Maximus]

[Red Badger]

So a Brown Dwarf is essentially just a ‘Baby Star’ that hasn’t been ‘born’ yet................

[Vehmgericht]

Gimli - its the dwarves that go swimming with little hairy women

[DouglasKC]

There is a theory that a brown dwarf resides in the Kuiper belt and is the long sought after planet x...it affects orbits of other planetary bodies.