This board is closed and will be kept as an archive. Please head to our new home at tch-forum.com
(Existing members: Please check your PMs for your password on the new board. If you do not have a PM, then please send one to me)
| Welcome to The Coffee House - your dose of caffeine! The Coffee House is a friendly and informal community dedicated to having fun. We're a diverse bunch, and so we have plenty to offer, including:
Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Brown dwarfs discovered 6.5 light years away | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 18 2013, 03:43 AM (109 Views) | |
| CJ | Mar 18 2013, 03:43 AM Post #1 |
|
A very minor case of serious brain damage
![]()
|
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/13/brown-dwarfs-star-system-wise-sun-light-years_n_2862343.html When NASA launched the WISE satellite in 2009, astronomers hoped it would be able to spot loads of cool, dim objects known as brown dwarfs. Bigger than a planet, a brown dwarf is not quite a star, either—it is too small to sustain the nuclear fusion reactions that turn hydrogen to helium. But it may burn to some degree, using a heavy isotope of hydrogen called deuterium as fusion fuel. Because brown dwarfs are so dim, it is entirely possible that some of them lie very close to the sun—as close as any known star—and have yet to be discovered. But more than three years after WISE (short for the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer) launched, the map of the sun’s immediate vicinity has remained largely unchanged. Until now. Interesting discovery. I wonder how many more brown dwarfs exist close to the Sun? |
![]() |
|
| Michelle | Mar 18 2013, 03:50 AM Post #2 |
|
.
![]()
|
That's really cool. Brown dwarfs are neat. |
![]() |
|
| CJ | Mar 18 2013, 01:13 PM Post #3 |
|
A very minor case of serious brain damage
![]()
|
Yeah. Some of them are actually as small as Jupiter. |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · Earth and Space · Next Topic » |







12:22 AM Jul 11