- Recent research found that the first brown dwarf discovered in 1995, Gliese 229B, is actually two brown dwarfs orbiting closely in a binary system, a rare arrangement for brown dwarfs.
- The two brown dwarfs, now named Gliese 229Ba and Gliese 229Bb, have masses 38 and 34 times that of Jupiter, respectively, and orbit a small star.
- Brown dwarf is too small to be a star but more massive than a planet. Most astronomers would classify any object with between 15 times the mass of Jupiter and 75 times the mass of Jupiter to be a brown dwarf.
- Brown dwarfs are celestial objects that failed to achieve enough mass to initiate nuclear fusion like stars but are still more massive than the largest planets.
- They can burn deuterium (a heavy form of hydrogen) but not the most common form of hydrogen.
Dig Deeper: What is more ‘missing mass’ problem?