Sub-brown dwarf

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A size comparison between our Sun, a brown dwarf, and Jupiter.
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A size comparison between our Sun, a brown dwarf, and Jupiter.

Sub-brown dwarfs or brown sub-dwarfs are objects only faintly visible in large telescopes

Their status is somewhere between giant planets and proper stars, but they are referred to as planets by some astronomers.

However, a sub-brown dwarf is formed in the manner of stars, through the collapse of a gas cloud, and not through accretion or core collapse from a circumstellar disc. The distinction between a sub-brown dwarf and a planet is unclear; astronomers are divided into two camps as whether to consider the formation process of a planet as part of its division in classification. [1]

An alternate definition involves the same mass range (less than a brown dwarf, but in the planetary range), but is free of gravitational attachment with any star. These are generally referred to as free-floating planets. Though less popular, this usage is in the IAU Extrasolar Planets provisional definition of a planet.

Contents

[edit] List of suspected sub-brown dwarfs

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ What is a Planet? Debate Forces New Definition, by Robert Roy Britt, 02 November 2000


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