MEXICO: In a rather spectacular finding, researchers from the California Institute of Technology have observed auroras on brown dwarfs for the first time. The findings of their study were published in the journal Nature. This has helped them conclude that brown dwarfs might be a lot more planet-like than previously thought.
The team of researchers used optical and radio telescopes over a five-year period, to look for radio pulsations and optical signature of aurora beyond our solar system. They detected radio and optical emissions from a rapidly rotating brown dwarf located about 18.5 light years away, named LSR J1835+13259. Ever since, optical and radio auroras have been observed on even smaller and cooler brown dwarfs.
Brown dwarfs do not have enough mass to reach the necessary core temperatures and pressures for nuclear fusion, the process that makes stars like our Sun shine. Instead, brown dwarfs fill the gap between the smallest stars called red dwarfs, and the largest planets, the gas giants like Jupiter.
All planets with magnetic fields produce auroras when charged particles in the solar wind interact with the planet’s magnetosphere. However, for brown dwarfs, since there is no star, so there is no stellar wind, so most likely there is an Earth-sized planet sitting very close powering the aurora.
The international research team is planning further observations over the next year using optical telescopes including Hubble and Keck, to delve deeper into the possible reasons that cause these stunning visual displays.
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