Friday, August 14, 2026
Science

TESS discovers a rare brown dwarf orbiting a massive, aging star

For decades, astronomers lumped brown dwarfs into a single category defined by mass alone—too big to be classified as planets but too small to become stars. However, this definition ignores the two very different mechanisms that can form them: the direct collapse of gas clouds and formation within t...

TESS discovers a rare brown dwarf orbiting a massive, aging star
Image: Phys.org
For decades, astronomers lumped brown dwarfs into a single category defined by mass alone—too big to be classified as planets but too small to become stars. However, this definition ignores the two very different mechanisms that can form them: the direct collapse of gas clouds and formation within the accretion disks of massive stars.

Originally published at Phys.org

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