brown dwarf
noun1
Astronomy, Natural sciences A starlike object that contracts to about the volume of Jupiter after its formation phase; its mass may range from several times that of Jupiter, such that it fuses deuterium, up to just below the threshold of sustained hydrogen fusion.
- But none of those brown dwarfs were speeding along on a trajectory that would carry them out of the galaxy like “runaway” hypervelocity stars observed by astronomers in the last two decades. […] “This places this object right on the lower boundary of allowed stellar masses, and it is in fact possible that the mass of the object is slightly below that boundary, which would imply that the object is not a star but a brown dwarf instead.”2024 August 21, Ashley Strickland, “An unusual object is moving so fast it could escape the Milky Way. Scientists aren’t certain what it is”, in CNN, archived from the original on 24 Sep 2024:
- Related terms
- sub-brown dwarf, red dwarf, yellow dwarf, white dwarf, blue dwarf, black dwarf