Brown Dwarfs

Source- This post on the Brown Dwarfs has been created based on the article “Webb telescope reveals wild weather on cosmic brown dwarfs” published in “The Hindu” on 23 July 2024.

Researchers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to conduct detailed examinations of the atmospheric conditions on pairs of brown dwarfs.

 About Brown Dwarfs

i) Brown dwarfs are celestial bodies that are larger than a planet but smaller than a star. They have a size range between that of a giant planet like Jupiter and a small star.

ii) Brown dwarfs accumulate material in a manner similar to stars, not like planets.

iii) Brown dwarfs can have clouds made of precipitates in their atmospheres. Unlike Earth’s water clouds, the clouds on brown dwarfs are much hotter and likely composed of hot silicate particles.

iv) Brown dwarfs retain lighter elements such as hydrogen and helium more effectively than planets, and they have a relatively low metal content.

v)  Brown dwarfs do not have enough mass for their cores to burn nuclear fuel and radiate starlight, which is why they are sometimes referred to as “failed stars.”

About James Webb Space Telescope

I) The James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021. It is a joint endeavor by the USA, European, and Canadian space agencies.

ii) It is a large infrared telescope with an approximately 6.5-meter primary mirror.

iii) Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope, it does not orbit Earth. Instead, it orbits the Sun, 5 million kilometers away from Earth, at the second Lagrange point (L2).

iv) The telescope is designed to see farther across the cosmos and further back in time than any previous astronomical tool. One of its key objectives is to find the very first stars that ignited in the nascent Universe.

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