An artist’s rendering of stormy weather on a brown dwarf planet.
Partly cloudy, with a high of 1,742 degrees Fahrenheit (950 degrees Celsius). That’s the weather forecast for the two planets collectively known as WISE 1049AB, located about six light-years away from our solar system.
This is according to scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope pointed at two brown dwarfs, small stars about 70 times the mass of Jupiter. These are the closest brown dwarfs to our solar system.
Brightness change
Published Today is Monthly Bulletin of the Royal Astronomical SocietyResearchers led by the University of Edinburgh in Scotland studied the brown dwarf’s atmosphere by measuring changes in the brightness of its surface. Over time, they created a 3D image showing how the weather changed over the course of a day, lasting just five and seven hours respectively. They were also able to find signatures of the interactions of water, methane, and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere.
The Sun, low-mass stars, brown dwarfs, Jupiter, and … [+]
“Failed Star”
Brown dwarfs are unique objects in the universe: halfway between giant planets and small stars, they start out shining like stars, but because they are too small to fuse hydrogen into helium (which is why stars shine), they quickly cool and disappear, and so are often considered failed stars.
“Our findings suggest that our understanding of worlds far beyond Earth is set to change,” said lead author Dr Beth Biller, an astronomer at the University of Edinburgh. “Insights like this can help us understand not only objects like brown dwarfs, but also the conditions on giant exoplanets outside our solar system.”
The same technique could help scientists discover weather conditions on habitable exoplanets orbiting other stars, she added, something that has yet to be accomplished.
This artist’s imagination is based on the first map depicting the weather on the surface of our nearest planet. … [+]
2nd Anniversary
JWST is an advanced space telescope with a huge 6.5-metre primary mirror whose main function is to detect weak infrared radiation emitted by distant stars, planets, and gas and dust clouds.
To mark the second anniversary of JWST’s scientific debut, NASA released a stunning image on July 12. New ImageAn image of an object called Arp 142 shows two distant galaxies interacting, giving the collectively resembling a penguin guarding an egg. Arp 142 is made up of two galaxies: NGC 2936 (the penguin’s eye) and NGC 2937 (the egg).
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