Webb telescope finds brown dwarf with dust clouds in its atmosphere

Bob Yirka is a research scientist at Phys.org.

A brown dwarf has silicate particles in its atmosphere. Astronomers describe their analysis of the brown dwarf in a paper posted on arXiv.

Some people have dubbed brown dwarfs failures. Unlike other stars, they fail to build up enough hydrogen to cause a fusion reaction. They don't grow to the size of stars due to that. The temperature and pressure of brown dwarfs are not as high as in stars. Space scientists are able to see them due to the fact that they emit heat and light. It's true that the JWST was designed to study objects in theIR.

VHS 1256-1 257 b is a brown dwarf that was first observed in 2015. It is 19 times larger than Jupiter and is still young. The researchers were interested in the fact that the dwarf has a reddish hue to it's atmosphere.

The brown dwarf's atmosphere was similar to most other brown dwarfs, but it was not as clear. They found carbon dioxide and methane. They think the clouds are made of silicate particles. They noted that the clouds were thick. They think they're made of a type of mineral called enstatite.

The researchers note that their observations show that brown dwarfs can be surrounded by dusty clouds which can affect their brightness. The study of objects such as exoplanets and brown dwarfs could be improved with the help of the JWST.

More information: Brittany E. Miles et al, The JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems II: A 1 to 20 Micron Spectrum of the Planetary-Mass Companion VHS 1256-1257 b. arXiv:2209.00620v1 [astro-ph.EP], arxiv.org/abs/2209.00620

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