Water ice clouds have been found on a “brown dwarf” 7.3 light-years from Earth
Water ice clouds have been found on a "brown dwarf" 7.3 light-years from Earth
Washington: Astronomers in the US say that they have discovered first traces of water clouds outside our solar system. Water ice clouds have been found on a “brown dwarf” 7.3 light-years from Earth.
The water ice clouds were discovered by Kevin Luhman, an astronomer at Penn State University, using Nasa’s WISE infrared space telescope, Science Mag reported. The water ice clouds are shrouding a Jupiter-sized “brown dwarf,” which is a failed star that has too little mass to sustain nuclear reactions and thus cools and fades in orbit.
Ground-based observatory has been unable to view the dim object, but the brown dwarf could provide astronomers with more information on cool giant planets orbiting suns outside our solar system, reported washington.cbslocal.com.
The newly-discovered object is estimated to be as large as Jupiter and three-to-ten times as massive and is relatively close being the fourth closest system to our sun.
( Source : agencies )
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