Article
Article
- Astronomy & Space Science
- Stars and the galaxy
- Brown dwarf
- Astronomy & Space Science
- Astronomy - general
- Brown dwarf
Brown dwarf
Article By:
Oppenheimer, Ben R. Department of Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California.
Last reviewed:September 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.097150
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- Brown dwarf, published November 2019:Download PDF Get Adobe Acrobat Reader
A gravitationally bound, condensed body whose mass is too small to sustain nuclear fusion reactions in its core. Brown dwarfs are often likened to "failed stars." The approximate mass range for brown dwarfs is between 13 and 80 times the mass of Jupiter (Fig. 1). To date, well over a thousand brown dwarfs of varying ages and masses have been found. Brown dwarfs are found in diverse environments and conditions, including multiple systems, in orbit around stars, with their own dust disks, and with planets orbiting them. See also: Exoplanet; Jupiter; Mass; Planet; Star
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