CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -Full Article. A team of astronomers has discovered that the closest known brown dwarf, Luhman 16A, shows signs of cloud bands similar to those seen on Jupiter and Saturn.

Detailed explanation-2: -Jupiter, while more massive than any other planet in our solar system, is still far too underweight to fuse hydrogen into helium. The planet would need to weigh 13 times its current mass to become a brown dwarf, and about 83 to 85 times its mass to become a low-mass star.

Detailed explanation-3: -The first confirmed class “M” brown dwarf was discovered by Spanish astrophysicists Rafael Rebolo (head of team), María Rosa Zapatero-Osorio, and Eduardo L. Martín in 1994. This object, found in the Pleiades open cluster, received the name Teide 1.

Detailed explanation-4: -Y dwarfs are difficult to observe because they are both cool and very dim. The light they do emit is predominantly in the infrared range, at wavelengths of three to five microns, where Earth’s atmosphere makes observations difficult.

Detailed explanation-5: -"Brown dwarfs are so elusive, so hard to find, ” McLean said. “They can be detected best in the infrared, and even within the infrared, they are very difficult to detect. We detect the heat glow from these faint objects in the infrared.