Sujet
Artist's impression showing a brown dwarf
Légende
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
21e siècle
Crédit
Photo12/Ann Ronan Picture Library
Notre référence
ARP15A02_201
Licence
Droits gérés
Format disponible
57,2Mo (1,8Mo) / 42,3cm x 33,9cm / 5000 x 4000 (300dpi)