brown dwarfs, failed stars, nasa

A Brown Dwarf Flashes Brighter Than the Sun’s Most Powerful Flares

A brown dwarf is often referred to as a “failed star”; however, astronomers have discovered a 23-million-year-old dwarf that flashes brighter than the Sun’s most powerful flares. The research team from the University of Delaware, led by John Gizis, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, discovered the “ultra-cool” brown dwarf known as ...

March 28, 2022

Troy Oakes

An artist's concept of a Y-type brown dwarf.

New Insights Into the Formation of Brown Dwarfs

Brown dwarfs are strange celestial bodies, occupying a kind of intermediate position between stars and planets. Astrophysicists sometimes call them “failed stars” because they have insufficient mass to burn hydrogen in their cores and shine like stars. It is continually debated if the formation of brown dwarfs is simply a scaled-down version of the formation ...

February 24, 2022

Troy Oakes