Are Jupiter and Saturn Brown Dwarfs, Not Planets?
sciencetech” /> COROT spacecraft approaching a star field that contains brown dwarfs Image by D Ducros/CNES Our early science classes taught us the difference between stars and planets, the description and properties of each were clear. Now astronomers have found objects in the Milky Way that are neither planets nor stars. Not confirmed until 1995, brown dwarfs emit very little visible light because nuclear fusion reactions cannot be maintained in their interior. And they are extremely difficult to observe at any wavelength. Above 13X the mass of Jupiter, they do fuse deuterium (’heavy hydrogen’) and that serves to distinguish them from giant, super dense planets. The heaviest brown dwarfs are 65X the mass of Jupiter or heavier and they rapidly ‘burn’ lithium. Find lithium in the spectrum of a super dense ‘object’ and you’ve found a brown dwarf those ‘exotic objects that are the link between massive planets and small stars. Another remarkable feature of brown dwarfs is their constant r
