CANADA: In a finding that shows that brown dwarfs, often referred to as failed stars, have more in common with regular planets than might otherwise be expected, researchers have found that brown dwarfs are home to powerful auroral phenomena near their poles.
The findings are the result of a 20-year study that used radio + optical telescopes to watch a brown dwarf over that timeframe.
“We’re finding that brown dwarfs are not like small stars in terms of their magnetic activity; they’re like giant planets with hugely powerful auroras,” stated researcher Hallinan. “If you were able to stand on the surface of the brown dwarf we observed — something you could never do because of its extremely hot temperatures and crushing surface gravity — you would sometimes be treated to a fantastic light show courtesy of auroras hundreds of thousands of times more powerful than any detected in our solar system.”
With the daicovery over the last w decades that brown dwarfs emit radio waves, speculation as to the cause/mechanism has been near constant.
“We see a similar pulsing phenomenon from planets in our solar system,” noted Hallinan, “and that radio emission is actually due to auroras.”
Could something similar be occurring on brown dwarfs? That question is what set off the recent research.
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