Swiss astronomers find five extremely heavy brown dwarfs
An international team of scientists led by astronomers from Switzerland discovered unusual objects in space, whose mass is located on the border between the masses of planets and stars. These bodies are known as brown dwarfs, Astronomy & Astrophysics reports.
Stars, like gas planets, are mostly composed of hydrogen and helium. But unlike planets, stars are so massive and their gravitational force is so great that hydrogen atoms merge to form helium. At the same time, a huge amount of energy and light is released.
Brown dwarfs are not massive enough to convert hydrogen. They create a heavier version, deuterium, and the light from them is much weaker than from stars.
“We still do not know exactly where the mass limits of brown dwarfs are, which distinguish them from low-mass stars that can burn hydrogen for many billions of years,” the scientists noted.
Exploration of these objects is complicated by the fact that they are very rare. The authors of the new study have identified five new brown dwarfs: TOI-148, TOI-587, TOI-681, TOI-746, and TOI-1213. They make a complete revolution around the host star in 5-27 days, have radii from 0.81 to 1.66 times larger than that of Jupiter, and 77-98 times more massive than the gas giant. This puts them on the line between brown dwarfs and stars.
“Each new discovery reveals additional information about the nature of brown dwarfs and gives us a better understanding of how they form and why they are so rare,” the astronomers noted.
Scientists have already established that dwarfs shrink with age. Thus, the two oldest objects, TOI 148 and 746, have a smaller radius than the others. Astronomers plan to continue research.
Scientists have previously discovered a superfast object in the Milky Way. It turned out to be a shard of a dead star.
