Scientists can now predict weather forecasts for places as far away as brown dwarfs, also called "failed stars."
Astronomers released their weather forecast for brown dwarfs in the 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington DC. Observations gathered from NASA's Spitzer telescope showed that most of the planets' weather is currently very stormy, with turbulent clouds circling these failed stars' atmosphere. Brown dwarfs are called failed stars since they lack the mass needed for them to keep on fusing atoms and to be able to become suns.
Black dwarfs are known to be very hot and turbulent, but when the Spitzer looked at 44 brown dwarf stars, they discovered that at least half of the failed stars observed share the same state of weather--stormy, raging, and with unpredictable patterns. The weather forecast were made by looking for varying shades of brightness coming from the surfaces of the stars as they spin on their axes.
The telescopes were able to discover hurricanes with winds as fast as 100-400 mph, clouds covering almost 50 percent of the planet's surfaces, and temperatures which can measure up to 1,227 C. The team also discovered a storm cloud that was very huge; it covered almost 20 percent of the brown dwarf star's surface. In comparison, Jupiter's Great Red Spot only cover one percent of the planet's surface.
"This is not like Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The storms on brown dwarfs are much more violent and variable. This is weather, not climate," said Stony Brook University Professor Dr. Aren Heinze to BBC News."The rain is too hot to be water. It is probably molten iron or silicates (sand)."
Prof. Adam Burgasser of the University of California, also added to BBC, "This makes us 'astro-meteorologists'. We can tell you how cloudy it's going to be, what the temperature is and how windy it's going to be that day. We hope to expand this forecast to exoplanets - we might find weather laws there too."
Another discovery made by the team is that some of these failed stars have a slower rotation than expected which indicates that some of them may be harbouring other undiscovered planetary objects.
