This groundbreaking international study reveals that these celestial objects, enveloped in swirling clouds of hot sand, endure temperatures of 950 C (1,742 F). Using NASA's $10 billion ( Pounds 7.6 billion) James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers targeted the weather on a pair of brown dwarfs. These cosmic bodies, larger than planets but smaller than stars, are collectively named WISE 1049AB and are the brightest and closest of their kind to Earth, approximately six light-years away.
The team tracked the atmosphere of each brown dwarf by measuring the emitted light waves, which change as cloudier regions rotate in and out of view. By visualizing this data through light curves-a plot of how the brightness of light from each object changes over time-they built a detailed 3D picture of the brown dwarfs' weather over a complete rotation, lasting between five and seven hours.
Additionally, the team demonstrated the presence and interaction of gases such as water, methane, and carbon monoxide in their atmospheres by analyzing how light varied by wavelength.
These findings may help astronomers understand brown dwarfs as a potential link between stars and planets, offering new insights into both. The JWST's ability to observe infrared light, which is blocked by Earth's atmosphere, opens new frontiers in studying the early universe, star formation, and exoplanets like brown dwarfs.
The study, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, builds on previous research that mostly captured static snapshots of brown dwarfs' atmospheres on one side. This method is limited as brown dwarfs rotate rapidly, causing significant weather variations.
Professor Beth Biller said: "Our findings show that we are on the cusp of transforming our understanding of worlds far beyond our own.
"Insights such as these can help us understand the conditions not just on celestial objects like brown dwarfs, but also on giant exoplanets beyond our solar system.
"Eventually, the techniques we are refining here may enable the first detections of weather on habitable planets like our own, which orbit other stars."
Related Links
Royal Astronomical Society
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