Also known as a brown dwarf, the failed star lies about 1,400 light-years from Earth and orbits a structure called a white dwarf. White dwarfs are cooling remnants of Sun-like stars that have run out of fuel at the end of the star’s life. Brown dwarfs are curious inhabitants of the universe. During their formation, these bodies failed to accumulate enough material to initiate the nuclear fusion process in their cores and grow into real stars. On the one hand, it’s a bit too big to be called a planet. For example, the unusually hot brown dwarfs reported in the new study are about 75 to 88 times more massive than Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. Furthermore, brown dwarfs are often hard to spot because they only give off residual heat left over from their formation. Temperatures can reach up to 2,500 degrees, but many surface temperatures are just a few hundred degrees. But the newly discovered brown dwarf (WD 0032-317B) has a surface temperature of over 12,600 degrees Celsius (7,000 degrees Celsius), making it the hottest brown dwarf ever observed, the statement said. Says. For comparison, the Sun’s surface temperature is about 9,900 degrees (5,500 degrees Celsius), meaning this strange star is over 2,000 degrees hotter than the Sun. RELATED: ‘Hot Jupiter’ exoplanet without friends may not be so lonely after all This brown dwarf’s unusual temperature is not the result of some peculiar internal process. Rather, it’s because it’s so close to the aforementioned white dwarf. This star is known as WD 0032-317 and has been known to astronomers since the early 2000s. Although the star’s corpse does not burn active fuel internally, its surface temperature is calculated to be very hot, around 66,000 degrees Fahrenheit (37,000 degrees Celsius). Brown dwarfs are very close to this white dwarf, orbiting closer to the Sun than Mercury, so they absorb a lot of radiation from the debris. As a result, the side of the brown dwarf closest to the white dwarf heats to extreme temperatures, while the opposite side remains significantly cooler, with surface temperatures up to 2,700 degrees Celsius. Scientists had previously thought that the super-hot white dwarf was part of another white dwarf and a binary star system. But measurements of the spectrum of light, or composition of light emitted by this strange object, reveal that this enigmatic companion is actually a brown dwarf. These measurements were made by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. The discovery is not just because it’s the hottest brown dwarf ever, but because WD 0032-317B’s size and proximity to its companion star have given astronomers clues about the process that causes its annihilation in the hot Jupiter atmosphere. It’s interesting because it might help you gain some insight. Hot Jupiters are Jupiter-like exoplanets, or exoplanets, that are about as close to their host star as WD 0032-317B is to a white dwarf. Some have managed to circle the star within days. However, these hot Jupiters are much smaller, only up to 10 times larger than Jupiter, and therefore much harder to spot in the glow of their parent stars. With new, more powerful observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists hope to be able to discover these strange planets more often. Also, more detailed data from binary systems like the WD 0032-317 duo could help us better interpret them. future observations.

source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-023-02048-z?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=commission_junction&utm_campaign=CONR_PF018_ECOM_GL_PHSS_ALWYS_DEEPLINK&utm_content=textlink&utm_term=PID100052171&CJEVENT=33c513af3e8b11ee82a629b50a18ba74