browned dwarf are very peculiar supernal objects . They organize like star , but they are not massive enough to start atomic nuclear fusion reaction in their core , so they do n’t quite make it as stars . Some of them are the sizing of planet , with cloud and turbulent atmosphere , although they are not really planet - alike . Some of them have aurorae , like the Northern Lights we see on Earth . However , it ’s not exactly unmortgaged how .
Brown dwarf W1935 is precisely that kind of aim . Astronomers observed it with JWST and expected to see methane in its ambience , which is very common inbrown dwarfs . much , infrared light has a big inclination at a specific wavelength , the key signature of methane presence as methane absorb that light . But the team did not see soaking up – they saw emission . Something is making methane glow .
“ We ask to see methane because methane is all over these brown dwarfs . But instead of absorbing luminance , we go steady just the opposite : The methane was glowing . My first opinion was , what the heck ? Why is methane discharge coming out of this object ? ” lead researcher Jackie Faherty , an uranologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York , allege in astatement .
emit methane has been seen on Jupiter and Saturn , and this is associated with aurorean activeness . The jumbo planet have aurorae from interaction between their strong magnetic fields and the solar wind , as well as cloth released by some of their active moons : volcanic Io for Jupiter . and the geyser of Enceladus for Saturn . But W1935 is isolated . There ’s no starring flatus flowing onto it that would cause the aurora . and a moon has not been seen .
“ With W1935 , we now have a spectacular extension of a solar system phenomenon without any astral irradiation to help in the explanation , ” added Faherty .
The lack of stellar irradiation is also puzzling for another reasonableness . The best model suggests that the brown midget ’s atmosphere is get hotter with height , a bit like Earth ’s stratosphere . Stratospheres have been witnessed on exoplanets but always in conjunction with the light and heat from the star topology . Once again , it ’s undecipherable what is going on here .
“ This temperature inversion is really baffle , ” tally Ben Burningham , a co - source from the University of Hertfordshire in England and contribute modeler on the body of work . “ We have seen this kind of phenomenon in planets with a nearby star that can heat the stratosphere , but consider it in an object with no obvious outside heat source is wild . ”
Despite being a few hundred degrees hotter than Jupiter , this is the coldest brown nanus to be a candidate for auroral activeness . A previousbrown dwarf with auroraewas a lot hotter . More observations of these object will certainly amount in metre to realise what is extend on .
enquiry talk about the breakthrough was presented at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society .
