Astronomers solve a decades-long mystery about the most famous “failed star”

Brown dwarfs are faint celestial bodies whose size ranges between the size of a planet such as Jupiter and a small star.

In 1995, Caltech researchers first discovered Gliese 229B, which orbits the red dwarf star Gliese 229 about 18 light-years from Earth. Since then, scientists have found thousands of brown dwarfs. Research in 2017 suggested there may be 100 billion of them throughout the Milky Way.

Gliese 229B confused scientists because the ball was very dim for its size, weighing about 70 times more than Jupiter, but did not shine that brightly.

Astronomers now say this is because the brown dwarf is actually one of two brown dwarfs. The weight of these two brown dwarfs is about 38 and 34 times the mass of Jupiter, respectively, and they revolve around each other in an orbit every 12 days. Scientists say their brightness now matches what would be expected for two brown dwarfs of this size.

The study’s authors used instruments from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile to make this discovery, conducting observations over a period of five months.

They found that the duo, now called Gliese 229Ba and Gliese 229Bb, orbits a star smaller and redder than our Sun every 250 years.

Brown dwarfs do not emit much light visible to the human eye, but they shine most brightly in infrared light, which can be picked up by devices such as night vision goggles or infrared cameras.

The question still remains about how these dancing brown dwarfs appeared. One theory is that binaries could form within the material surrounding the forming star.

Of course, this discovery has led to new dilemmas about where similar binaries exist and whether they are still waiting to be discovered.

In the future, the team wants to search for more pairs using other observatories.

The results of the study were published in the journal Nature.

Source: Independent