Starry Time PodcastFeeling under the weather🤧
But I can be grateful it's not *this* weather (an artist's rendition of weather on a brown dwarf)
Benjamin Carr, Ph.D. 👨🏻💻🧬What a Signal in a Failed Star’s Clouds Means for the Search for Life
The detection of the molecule #phosphine in a #browndwarf’s atmosphere may help #astronomers in their search for life elsewhere in the Milky Way,a molecule that on this planet is produced by living things.
This discovery is not life, the astronomers say. Any life as we know it would be impossible to sustain in such an environment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/science/brown-dwarf-phosphine-life.html
https://archive.ph/7nyuM
The detection of the molecule #phosphine in a #browndwarf’s atmosphere may help #astronomers in their search for life elsewhere in the Milky Way,a molecule that on this planet is produced by living things.
This discovery is not life, the astronomers say. Any life as we know it would be impossible to sustain in such an environment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/science/brown-dwarf-phosphine-life.html
https://archive.ph/7nyuM
Daniel FischerDirect Imaging Explorations for Companions from the Subaru/IRD Strategic Program - Discovery of a #BrownDwarf Companion around a Nearby Mid-M-dwarf LSPM J1446+4633: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae08b6 -> Discovery of Brown Dwarf Companion Provides New Insight into Stellar and Planetary Formation and Evolution: https://keckobservatory.org/brown-dwarf/
Discovery of the Second Y+Y Dwarf Binary System, CWISEP J193518.59-154620.3: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adfee1 -> A Strange #BrownDwarf Gets Stranger: https://aasnova.org/2025/10/17/a-strange-brown-dwarf-gets-stranger/
Observation of undepleted phosphine in the atmosphere of a low-temperature brown dwarf: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adu0401 -> The first-time finding of appreciable amounts of #phosphine in a #BrownDwarf suggests it may be too soon to use the molecule as a sign of #AlienLife: https://cen.acs.org/physical-chemistry/astrochemistry/Phosphine-found-brown-dwarfs-atmosphere/103/web/2025/10 / Phosphine, Evidence, and an Exercise in Scientific Restraint: https://www.seti.org/news/wolf-1130c-phosphine-evidence-and-an-exercise-in-scientific-restraint/
Daniel PomarèdeGemini South Telescope Aids in Discovery of Elusive Cloud-Forming Chemical on Ancient Brown Dwarf
10-billion-year-old brown dwarf nicknamed The Accident unlocks clues to the chemistry of cloud formation on planets like Jupiter and Saturn
https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2526/
#Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrodon #space #science #research #news #BrownDwarf #Gemeini #GeminiSouth #telescope #Jupiter #Saturn #physics
Gemini South Aids in Discovery of Elusive Cloud-Forming Chemical on Ancient Brown Dwarf - 10-billion-year-old brown dwarf nicknamed The Accident unlocks clues to the chemistry of cloud formation on planets like Jupiter and Saturn
In the first discovery of its kind, astronomers have found silane in the atmosphere of an ancient brown dwarf nicknamed The Accident. This molecule plays an important role in the formation of clouds in gas giant atmospheres, but for decades it has eluded detection in planets like Jupiter and Saturn. The discovery was made possible with complementary observations from the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded Gemini South telescope in Chile and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
Bill MinarikRe-post from MinCup past:
The non-detection of #perovskite in non-stars shows that it's there.
Cool red dwarf stars have deep absorption bands from TIO gas in their atmospheres. In yet cooler brown dwarfs those bands have disappeared: opaque perovsite dust has condensed, making the titanium invisible.
Spectra from Kesseli et al. (2017), images from Gabicca, LEAP group.
Scientists Find a Quadruple Star System in Our Cosmic Backyard
First, the #astronomers identified what they believed was a lone #browndwarf orbiting a bright single #star. Further investigation revealed that the brown dwarf was actually two. After submitting a paper about the discovery, Dr. Zhang said, they realized that the bright companion was a pair of #stars, too.
“I like to call this a double-double,” said Adam Burgasser, an #astrophysicist.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/science/quadruple-star-system.html
https://archive.ph/4CqdP
First, the #astronomers identified what they believed was a lone #browndwarf orbiting a bright single #star. Further investigation revealed that the brown dwarf was actually two. After submitting a paper about the discovery, Dr. Zhang said, they realized that the bright companion was a pair of #stars, too.
“I like to call this a double-double,” said Adam Burgasser, an #astrophysicist.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/science/quadruple-star-system.html
https://archive.ph/4CqdP
AlcorNewsDes « étoiles ratées » (naines brunes) émettent des ondes radio malgré leur froideur extrême : une frontière fascinante entre planète et étoile.
https://www.techno-science.net/actualite/decouverte-etoiles-ratees-extreme-nous-apprennent-elles-N27317.html
#Space #Science #BrownDwarf #FailedStar #RadioEmission #UltracoolObjects #AstroDiscovery
https://www.techno-science.net/actualite/decouverte-etoiles-ratees-extreme-nous-apprennent-elles-N27317.html
#Space #Science #BrownDwarf #FailedStar #RadioEmission #UltracoolObjects #AstroDiscovery
The View from Out ThereThe 2000s have brought a few new members to the list of closest systems to the Sun. Luhman 16 is the closest of all, at 6.51 light years, in third place behind α Centauri and Barnard's Star.
One of my favorite things is images that show the dynamic nature of the sky in contrast to the superficially "eternal heavens" we perceive. Luhman 16 gives us no less than three ways of changing, as shown here. (1/3)
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Bedin et al.