I recently wandered into a conference on "cool stars" sponsored by Cal Tech. In a room with "posters" was a piece about companion stars, which mentioned several types of companions, such as brown dwarf--which I've heard of--and T dwarf--which I haven't.
2006-11-10 05:33:31 · 3 answers · asked by Charles d 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Scientists using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered and directly imaged a small brown dwarf star, 50 times the mass of Jupiter, orbiting with a planet around a Sun-like star. Such an arrangement has never before been seen but might be common, the scientists say, leading to solar systems with distorted planetary orbits.
Kevin Luhman of Penn State University is the lead author on a report describing this discovery, which will be published in The Astrophysical Journal. The discovery concerns a class of the coldest brown dwarfs, called T dwarfs.
The detailed research paper on T dwarf - Ref
http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Luhman9-2006-2.htm
2006-11-11 22:03:11 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's a low-mass brown dwarf.
2006-11-10 13:37:09 · answer #2 · answered by cosmo 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
It is Mr. T's love child.
2006-11-10 13:34:54 · answer #3 · answered by Isis 7 · 1⤊ 3⤋