Astronomers Discover the Coolest Known Sub-Stellar Body 60
Hugh Pickens writes "Science Daily reports that using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii, astronomers have discovered what may be the coolest sub-stellar body ever found outside our own solar system. Too small to be stars and with insufficient mass to maintain hydrogen-burning nuclear fusion reactions in their cores, 'brown dwarfs' have masses smaller than stars but larger than gas giant planets like Jupiter, with an upper limit in between 75 and 80 Jupiter masses. 'This looks like the fourth time in three years that the UKIRT has made a record breaking discovery of the coolest known brown dwarf, with an estimated temperature not far above 200 degrees Celsius,' says Dr. Philip Lucas at the University of Hertfordshire. Due to their low temperature these objects are very faint in visible light, and are detected by their glow at infrared wavelengths. The object known as SDSS1416+13B is in a wide orbit around a somewhat brighter and warmer brown dwarf, SDSS1416+13A, and the pair is located between 15 and 50 light years from the solar system, which is quite close in astronomical terms."
I'm sure (Score:2)
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It's the new coolest sub-stellar body (Score:2)
(Puts on shades.)
Yeah.
Coolest? (Score:2)
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Re:Coolest? (Score:4, Interesting)
I think that by "sub-stellar body" they mean something not orbiting a star.
BTW as most of the exoplanets found so far orbit very close to their stars and so are rather hot ("hot jupiters") it is likely that this thing is cooler than most of them.
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You're whacko if you think that brown dwarves can't orbit stars.
So what? The previous poster did not make this claim.
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From the summary (not even the article!): "The object known as SDSS1416+13B is in a wide orbit around a somewhat brighter and warmer brown dwarf, SDSS1416+13A"
Obviously you're literate in the most basic sense. So why not put that ability to use, genius?
Alas, it's not clear that you are literate in even the most basic sense. XD
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A russet gnome?
Re:Scientists confirming what everybody already kn (Score:5, Funny)
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Re:Scientists confirming what everybody already kn (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Scientists confirming what everybody already kn (Score:2)
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All depends on how close it is and what it masses. True for any body that passed by that wasn't radiating so much it would vaporize the place.
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Oops - and it's velocity of course.
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An object with 75 to 80 times the mass of Jupiter passing through the Solar System would cause way more chaos than that. Trust me, you'd be well aware of its presence.
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I was always of the understanding that most of the mass for the moon came not from some of the mars sized mass that hit earth rebounding, but instead from the opposite side of the earth from the impact. Sort of like a Newtons cradle. So, mars sized mass hits earth and some of it does break up and maybe end up as part of the moon, but most of it just gets swallowed by earth, the shockwave blows off a huge piece of the earth on a similar trajectory some of which returns to earth and the rest of which accumula
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What would a brown dwarf do if it passed close by to earth... since they are hard to detect I can assume we wouldn't see it coming.
Um, it would be a lot easier to see coming than the planet Jupiter. What makes a brown dwarf hard to detect is that it's not close to a star (if it was, it would be a large exoplanet instead). Obviously it one was passing close by Earth, it would be close to a star (the Sun) and would be extremely easy to detect. "Impossible to miss" would be a better description. Depending on how close, it would likely be the brightest object in the sky, visible in broad daylight, for a few centuries before it got too
Not "brown dwarf" (Score:3, Funny)
What's the bigger news here? (Score:3, Interesting)
So... (Score:3, Funny)
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So? (Score:1, Funny)
Shouldn't they be looking for the hottest stellar body, if you know what I mean?
These should be common (Score:3, Interesting)
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0; dark matter isn't normal matter that we just can't see, it's an entirely different form of matter (at least according to the theory).
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0; dark matter isn't normal matter that we just can't see, it's an entirely different form of matter (at least according to the theory).
Actually "dark matter" refers to an matter we don't see. So brown dwarfs etc. (that are sufficiently far to be undetectable) qualify as dark matter. But current understanding is, that baryonic dark matter (ie. brown dwarfs and stuff) is tiny fraction of non-baryonic dark matter, which is what you're talking about above.
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I know we can't make too many assumptions, but I think common sense would indicate there's trillions of these things floating out there. I would think there's more of these in the galaxy than stars, if you just continue the mass/frequency curve past the point that fusion ignites.
That's a pretty common astrophysical assumption though, that the universe is homogenous and isotropic [wikipedia.org]. Or in simpler words, our corner of space is not significantly different from any other corner of space. So if we find these guys floating around in space, similar objects will likely float around elsewhere as well.
This calls for a facepalm. (Score:2)
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double facepalm to those that thought 'sub-stellar body' meant it was kinda tubby.
Isn't Jupiter cooler? (Score:2)
I mean if Jupiter’s surface temperature is below 200 degrees Celsius (and i bet it is), and since it’s also a brown dwarf (even with nuclear reactions going on in its core), shouldn’t it be even cooler?
Also, what about Saturn, Neptune and Uranus, who just as much count as brown dwarfs, since they are mainly built like a star.
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> I mean if Jupiter's surface temperature is below 200 degrees Celsius (and i
> bet it is)...
165K (defining "surface" as "1 bar pressure level")
> ...and since it's also a brown dwarf...
No it isn't.
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Yeah but all of those object are not "outside our own solar system". If they were, they would be very hard to detect.
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I mean if Jupiter’s surface temperature is below 200 degrees Celsius (and i bet it is), and since it’s also a brown dwarf...
Jupiter is not a brown dwarf. It orbits the Sun.
Also, what about Saturn, Neptune and Uranus, who just as much count as brown dwarfs,
Correct, insofar as "just as much count" correctly notes that none of these bodies are brown dwarves.
... since they are mainly built like a star.
How something is built does not alone define its astronomical classification. If the Earth orbited a gas giant, it would be a moon rather than a planet. If Titan did not orbit Saturn but orbited the Sun, it would be a planet, not a moon. If Jupiter would flying free through interstellar space with no star to orbit, it would be a brown dwarf. But in fact, i
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> If Jupiter would flying free through interstellar space with no star to
> orbit, it would be a brown dwarf.
No it wouldn't.
Fonz (Score:2)
Since it's the coolest known, if Fonzie doesn't already have a sub-stellar body named after him, this one should be it.
update WP (Score:3, Interesting)
Funny they don't know far it is (Score:2)
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Cool! (Score:1)
:)
Off-topic (Score:1)
What a sight... (Score:1)