Posted on 11/23/2013 6:57:50 PM PST by SunkenCiv
In 1995 the simultaneous discovery of extrasolar planets planets orbiting stars other than the sun and brown dwarfs bigger than giant planets but smaller than stars revolutionized astronomy.
But no existing telescope is large enough to show details on exoplanets and brown dwarfs: we can only see them as faint points of light...
In October 2012 we turned both the Hubble Space Telescope, which orbits Earth at 18,000 miles per hour, and the Spitzer Space Telescope, which drifts in space 100 million miles away, to precisely the same target to try something new. Our target was a brown dwarf.
Since then we have looked at more than 40 brown dwarfs balls of gas too small to ignite as stars with the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes.
As the brown dwarfs were observing slowly spin, we deduce their cloud or surface structures from their brightness variations. For example, when a brown dwarf rotates and a brighter cloudless region turns toward the telescopes, the brown dwarf will seem to brighten. In contrast, when cloudy regions turn toward the telescopes, it will become dimmer.
The two telescopes can see light at different wavelengths, allowing us to probe different depths in the atmospheres. With this information we are exploring the atmospheres of brown dwarfs in three dimensions.
(Excerpt) Read more at azstarnet.com ...
This illustration shows that when brown dwarf 2M2228 was observed simultaneously by NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes, scientists saw offset layers of material, indicating this brown dwarfs turbulent atmosphere has wind-driven, planet-size clouds. -- Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Extra to APoD just for the one pic here.
“Balls of gas too small to ignite as stars”
“Well a goodness gracious
Great balls of gas!”
It’ll never make the Top 40.
Brown Dwarfs?
Need I say that this thread has the potential to become extremely politically incorrect! ;-)
It’s always immensely satisfying to contemplate things that are infinitely bigger than big government.
Very, very cool. Thanks.
And don't mention the red giants.
We're in enough trouble already for the black holes.
That’s funny because they can’t even map storms on this planet!
Red Dwarf...
PING!
Dwarfs from the Alternate Evil Universe:
Sneaky
Snarky
Snarly
Sleazy
Slimey
Scuzzy
And the ever lovable:
Scabby.
Dem Black Hos be Rassiss!
Thanks for the ping......
heeheehee
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