Researchers have the opportunity to study brown dwarfs like never before.
A brown dwarf system was discovered only two star systems away; the finding will allow scientists to observe the objects in stunning detail, a Max Planck Institute for Astronomy news release reported. The team was able to use a technique called Doppler imaging on the brown dwarfs for the first time in history. It allowed them to create the first surface map of a brown dwarf.
Two recent studies looked at the objects Luhman 16A and 16B.
"Previous observations have inferred that brown dwarfs have mottled surfaces, but now we can start to directly map them. What we see is presumably patchy cloud cover, somewhat like we see on Jupiter," Ian Crossfield of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy said in the news release. "In the future we will be able to watch cloud patterns form, evolve, and dissipate - eventually, maybe exo-meteorologists will be able to predict whether a visitor to Luhman 16B can expect clear or cloudy skies."
Temperatures on these brown dwarfs are a treacherous 1100 Celsius (about 2012 degrees Fahrenheit) and the objects contain clouds made up of "molten iron and various mineral." The atmosphere is believed to be made up of mainly hydrogen.
A second study found that differently-shaded clouds moving through the brown dwarfs' atmospheres can cause their brightness to fluctuate.
"We've learned that the weather pattern on these brown dwarfs are quite complex. The cloud structure of the brown dwarf varies quite strongly as a function of atmospheric depth and cannot be explained with a single layer of clouds," study leader Beth Biller, who now works at the University of Edinburgh, said in the news release.
The researchers plan to test these conclusions using models.
"The exciting bit is that this is just the start. With the next generations of telescopes, and in particular the 39 [meter] European Extremely Large Telescope, we will likely see surface maps of more distant Brown Dwarfs - and eventually, a surface map for a young giant planet," Biller said.
