Title
Artist's impression showing a brown dwarf
Caption
Artist's impression showing a brown dwarf surrounded by a swirling disc of planet-building dust. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope spotted such a disc around a surprisingly low-mass brown dwarf, or 'failed star.' The brown dwarf, called OTS 44, is only 15 times the size of Jupiter, making it the smallest brown dwarf known to host a planet-forming, or protoplanetary disc. Astronomers believe that this unusual system will eventually spawn planets. If so, they speculate that OTS 44's disc has enough mass to make one small gas giant and a few Earth-sized rocky planets. OTS 44 is about 2 million years old.
Date
21th century
Credit line
Photo12/Ann Ronan Picture Library
Reference
ARP15A02_201
License type
Rights managed
Available size
57,2Mb (1,8Mb) / 16,7in x 13,3in / 5000 x 4000 (300dpi)