
Science – An international team of astronomers has discovered the coldest brown dwarf star ever observed. This finding, to be published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, is a new step toward filling the gap between stars and planets.
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It makes sense that one would find more blurring between what we consider stars and planets. Celestial bodies can be expected to have an almost infinite range of masses from the molecular-sized dust grains, to the billions-plus solar-masses of black holes. The labels that we choose to categorize these masses with, are a just result of the observed effects of the physics of the increasing masses. Lower mass objects are your dust, meteorites, comets, asteroids, planets. These are usually naturally cold, solid bodies, depending on composition.
Stars appear (and are) different because a physical limitation has been reached due to the increasing mass. Hydrogen (and isotopes) has a physical limitation of how much pressure and temperature can be applied before its atomic structure begins to re-arrange itself; Nuclear fusion. Now the masses are very hot, and are luminous.
Increase the mass some more, and physical limitations give you neutron stars, and ultimately, black-holes.
I guess we just have to ask ourselves the question as to when a planet ceases to be a planet and becomes a brown dwarf.
When it reaches a critical mass.
Yes! These changes can happen very rapidly. When a stellar core starts producing iron, this change spreads so rapidly that it appears almost instantaneous throughout the core. Then it collapses at a good fraction of the speed of light, and then boom!
On the other end of the scale, didn't they just demote Pluto?
Sacrilege!