First planet in orbit around brown dwarf found
JUL 29, 2013
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.027210
MIT Technology Review : A brown dwarf is a failed star. With a mass less than one-tenth that of the Sun, it cannot sustain nuclear fusion, so it exists as a warm ball of hydrogen gas. However, because brown dwarfs likely form in the same way as regular stars, but with less material, they are often observed to have protoplanetary disks . Now, an international team of astronomers has identified the first known planet in orbit around a brown dwarf. The first sign of the possible presence of a planet was a tiny shift in the light of a brown dwarf 6000 light-years away. Investigation of the shift revealed it to be caused by gravitational lensing —the bending of light due to the presence of a large mass between the light source and observer. The astronomers were able to determine that the lensing was caused by a body twice the mass of Jupiter that was orbiting 1 AU from the brown dwarf.
© 2013 American Institute of Physics
