. 24/7 Space News .
Astronomers Discover Youngest And Lowest Mass Dwarfs

Hidden and mysterious. Great swaths of dust disguise this direction in our galaxy. This great molecular cloud harbours the formation of new solar systems. However, facination with the field lies not with what is seen, but instead by the intimated hints of activity. Subtle glows of pink and blue do little to cast warmth on a field that shows the structure of the cold interstellar medium. To the left the cluster and surrounding bluish reflection nebula of IC348 punctuate the darkness. To the right the strange and ornate concentration of NGC 1333 looks as a miniature peacock amid dark and foreboding clouds.
  • Desktop available - 1024x768 - 1280 x 1024 and 1360 x 768
  • by Staff Writers
    Hatfield UK (SPX) Apr 22, 2009
    Astronomers have found three brown dwarfs with estimated masses of less than 10 times that of Jupiter, making them among the youngest and lowest mass sub-stellar objects detected in the solar neighborhood to date.

    The observations were made by a team of astronomers working at the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de l'Observatoire de Grenoble (LAOG), France, using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). Andrew Burgess will be presenting the discovery at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science at the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, on Wednesday 22nd April.

    The dwarfs were found in a star forming region named IC 348, which lies almost 1000 light years from the Solar System towards the constellation of Perseus. This cluster is approximately 3 million years old - extremely young compared to our 4.5 billion year old Sun - which makes it a good location in order to search for the lowest mass brown dwarfs.

    The dwarfs are isolated in space, which means that they are not orbiting a star, although they are gravitationally bound to IC 348. Their atmospheres all show evidence of methane absorption which was used to select and identify these young objects.

    "There has been some controversy about identifying young, low mass brown dwarfs in this region. An object of a similar mass was discovered in 2002, but some groups have argued that it is an older, cooler brown dwarf in the foreground coinciding with the line of sight.

    The fact that we have detected three candidate low-mass dwarfs towards IC 348 supports the finding that these really are very young objects," said Burgess.

    The team set out to find a population of these brown dwarfs in order to help theoreticians develop more accurate models for the distribution of mass in a newly-formed population, from high mass stars to brown dwarfs, which is needed to test current star formation theories. The discovery of the dwarfs in IC 348 has allowed them to set new limits on the lowest mass objects.

    "Finding three candidate low-mass dwarfs towards IC 348 backs up predictions for how many low-mass objects develop in a new population of stars. Brown dwarfs cool with age and current models estimate that their surfaces are approximately 900-1000 degrees Kelvin (about 600-700 degrees Celsius).

    That's extremely cool for objects that have just formed, which implies that they have the lowest masses of any of this type of object that we've seen to date," said Burgess.

    Share This Article With Planet Earth
    del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
    YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



    Related Links
    Observatoire de Grenoble
    Stellar Chemistry, The Universe And All Within It



    Memory Foam Mattress Review
    Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
    XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


    Hubble Celebrates 19th Anniversary With Fountain Of Youth
    Garching, Germany (SPX) Apr 22, 2009
    To commemorate the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's 19 years of success, the orbiting telescope has photographed a peculiar system of galaxies known as Arp 194. This interacting group contains several galaxies along with a "cosmic fountain" of stars, gas, and dust that stretches over 100,000 light years.







  • LockMart Friction Stir Weld Now Under Way On Orion Test Article
  • China expert recruitment project nets first batch: report
  • Scientists Pinpoint The Edge Of Space
  • Kazakhstan Indefinitely Postpones Space Program Indefinitely

  • JPL Analyzing Spirit Computer Reboots And Amnesia Events
  • Spirit Suffers Memory Gaps and Unexplained Resets
  • Opportunity For Some Crater Hopping On Route To Endeavour
  • Early Martian Environment And Water Drive Search For Life Forms

  • China Launches "Yaogan VI" Remote-Sensing Satellite
  • Sea Launch Delivers SICRAL 1B Satellite To Orbit
  • SpaceX Delays Falcon 1 Razaksat Launch
  • Launch of Herschel, Planck telescopes postponed: ESA

  • Nigerian Engineers Learn To Map African Resources Using NigeriaSat-1
  • Satellites Show How Earth Moved During Italy Quake
  • RISAT2 Can See Through Thick Clouds
  • Satnav Reflection Technology For Remote Sensing Of The Earth

  • The PI's Perspective: One-Third Down
  • New Horizons Detects Neptune's Moon Triton
  • The Lower Atmosphere Of Pluto Revealed
  • NASA And ESA Prioritise Outer Planet Missions

  • Two Highly Complex Organic Molecules Detected In Space
  • Most Distant Detection Of Water In The Universe
  • Astronomers Discover Youngest And Lowest Mass Dwarfs
  • UKIRT Astronomers Discover Local Star's Cool Companion

  • ISRO Going Full Blast With Chandrayaan-2
  • Moon Dust Hazard Influenced By Solar Elevation
  • LRO To Help Astronauts Survive In Infinity
  • Indian Lunar Orbiter Sends Back Images To Establish Water Presence On Moon

  • Game-Changing Moves Strengthen Consumer LBS In North America
  • CLS Integrates EMS Satamatics LRIT Solutions
  • iVisit Rx Wins CTIA Wireless 2009 CTIA E-Tech Awards
  • ArrivedOK Flight Arrival Tracker Gets Localized In New Markets

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2007 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement