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Are brown dwarfs failed stars or super-planets?
by Staff Writers
Heidelberg, Germany (SPX) Apr 10, 2019

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Brown dwarfs fill the "gap" between stars and the much smaller planets - two very different types of astronomical objects. But how they originate has yet to be fully explained. Astronomers from Heidelberg University may now be able to answer that question. They discovered that the star Zeta Ophiuchi in the Milky Way is being orbited by two brown dwarfs, which in all probability formed along with the star from a gas and dust disk, just as planets do. The research results were published in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Brown dwarfs orbit either one star or travel in isolation in the vast expanse of the Milky Way. Their mass - they are at least 13 times heavier than the planet Jupiter - is sufficient to generate, at least temporarily, energy in their core through nuclear fusion. They are not sufficiently massive, however, to ignite hydrogen in their cores and hence to create their own light.

The heat they continue to radiate after formation is how astronomers are able to locate them. It is estimated that up to 100 billion brown dwarfs make their home in the Milky Way. Yet it remains unclear how they form - whether they are "failed" stars or possibly even super-planets.

The recent discoveries made at the Centre for Astronomy of Heidelberg University (ZAH) could provide an answer. Prof. Dr Andreas Quirrenbach and his team at the Konigstuhl State Observatory of the ZAH analysed the variations in radial velocity of the star Zeta Ophiuchi. Using telescopes in the USA and Japan, the Heidelberg astronomers and others measured the velocity of the star for 11 years. The star has a mass slightly greater than two and half times that of the Sun, and is located approximately 150 light years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus.

The Heidelberg team noticed a certain pattern in the measurements, similar to those caused by orbiting planets or binary stars, which is usually nothing out of the ordinary. But in this case, in-depth analysis of the data revealed something extraordinary: apparently, Zeta Ophiuchi is being orbited by two brown dwarfs with an orbital period of approximately 530 and 3,185 days, which puts them in a 6:1 resonant configuration. So, the brown dwarf closest to Zeta Ophiuchi orbits its star exactly six times while the other, more distant brown dwarf completes only one orbit.

This discovery sheds completely new light on the evolution of brown dwarfs. Do they develop exclusively like normal stars in interstellar clouds, or can they also form in the so-called protoplanetary disk of gas and dust that surrounds the parent star in the early phase of its formation? "The 6:1 resonance is a strong indication for the latter scenario," explains Prof. Quirrenbach. "Only then could the orbits of the newly developing brown dwarfs adjust to a stable resonance over millions of years."

That is what the extensive dynamic analyses for possible configurations of the Zeta Ophiuchi system suggest, reports the researcher. This superplanetary system is the first of its kind as well as the first sure sign that brown dwarfs can form in a protoplanetary disk, Prof. Quirrenbach stresses. The researcher and his team hope for other such discoveries that may one day allow them to clarify how many of the "failed" stars are actually more massive siblings of Jupiter and Saturn.

Research paper


Related Links
University of Heidelberg
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EXO WORLDS
High School Senior Uncovers Potential for Hundreds of Earth-Like Planets in Kepler Data
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Apr 01, 2019
An 18-year-old high school senior has won a $250,000 prize for calculating the potential for finding more planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets, using data from NASA's Kepler space telescope. Kepler, whose mission ended in 2018, discovered over 2,600 confirmed exoplanets, with thousands more candidate planets still being considered. But are there more planets that have yet to be found around stars Kepler looked at, leaving traces in the telescope's data? Ana Humphrey, a student at T. ... read more

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