List of least massive stars

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This is a list of the least massive stars known. The list is ordered by solar mass and Jovian mass.

This list includes brown dwarfs and red dwarfs. The name of each brown dwarf has background color brown, and the names of and red dwarfs are against a background of red or orange, depending on whether they are cooler class M or warmer class M. (The objects are not actually these colors.)

Although brown dwarfs lack sufficient mass to ignite core hydrogen fusion (75-87 Jupiters, depending on metallicity), the smallest true stars (red dwarfs) can have such cool atmospheric temperatures (below 4,000 K), that it is difficult to distinguish them from brown dwarfs.

A star's mass cannot be lower than 13 Jupiter masses, because below this critical point the core does not get hot enough by gravitational pressure to start the fusion of deuterium, which requires at least a temperature of more than 1500 to 4000 K (depending on metallicity), in combination with a mass of about 7% that of our Sun. A brown dwarf therefore is heavier than a gas-giant planet, but not quite massive enough to be a star.

List of the lightest stars
Star name Solar Mass Jupiter Mass
Jupiter (as reference) 0.00096 1
---------------- ----- --
Cha 110913-773444 0.008 8
OTS 44 0.013 15
Oph1622 A 0.014 15.5
Oph1622 B 0.016 17.5
Gliese 229B 0.021 25
2M1207 0.021 25
Epsilon Indi BB 0.024 28
HD 98230B 0.037 39
Teide 1 0.041 43
Epsilon Indi BA 0.045 47
Wolf 424B 0.050 52
Gliese 570D 0.050 52
Gliese 229A 0.053 55
LP 944-20 0.056 58
2MASS 0415-0935 0.060 63
Wolf 424A 0.060 63
DENIS 1048-39 0.065 68
2MASS 1835+3259 0.070 75
DENIS 0255-4700 0.070 75
V1581 Cygni C 0.074 79
2MASS 0532+8246 0.077 81
LHS 3003 (GJ 3877) 0.077 81
Gliese 165B 0.080 84
Gliese 623B 0.080 84
LHS 1070B 0.080 84
LHS 1070C 0.080 84
Ross 614B 0.080 84
Teegarden's Star 0.080 84
Wolf 1055B 0.080 84
Gl 105C 0.082 86
LHS 292 0.083 87
LP 731-58 0.083 87
DX Cancri 0.087 91
Van Briesboeck 8 0.088 92
AB Doradus C 0.089 93
OGLE-TR-122b 0.091 96
Wolf 359 0.1 105
---------------- ----- --
Sun (as reference) 1 1042

Note: The object Cha 110913-773444 is sometimes referred to as being the smallest Brown Dwarf, but its mass is too light for this (8 times Jupter's Mass). It is even smaller than some exoplanets known to us. Therefore it can better be seen as a so-called Sub-brown dwarf or a Planemo.

[edit] See also