Image source, IPAC/CALTECH
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The appearance of a brown dwarf as in the illustrator’s imagination. A brown dwarf is a term for a cosmic object with a mass smaller than a star and larger than a planet.
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The discovery of a celestial object commonly called a brown dwarf by Dan Caselden, a scientist, confused the world’s astronomers.
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This brown dwarf was given the name “The Accident” because it was found accidentally, (by accident) purely due to luck.
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Interestingly, as well as puzzling, Accident’s characteristics are unlike any known brown dwarf in the world of astronomy, according to a statement issued by the United States space agency, NASA.
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A brown dwarf is a term for a cosmic object with a mass smaller than a star and larger than a planet. In other words, too small to be called a star, but too large to be categorized as a planet.
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The mass of brown dwarfs ranges from 12 Jupiter times to half of our Sun.
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“The accident was not what we expected,” said Davy Kirkpatrick, an astrophysicist at IPAC at Caltech in Pasadena, California, who led the study of the celestial object.
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“His findings show us that the composition of brown dwarfs is more varied than we have known so far. There are a lot of oddities out there and we have to think hard about how to examine these objects,” said Kirkpatrick.
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The accident, officially known as WISEA J153429.75-104303.3, is located about 50 light-years from Earth and is rotating at 800,000 kilometers per hour, faster than the brown dwarfs found in areas the same distance from Earth.
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Even so, he was confused because the level of brightness he displayed was not like that of a brown dwarf his age.
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Usually, as they age, brown dwarfs cool off and their brightness fades, scientists say.
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‘Inconsistent characteristics’
But, Accident showed, at key wavelengths, he was gloomy which suggested he was old and cold, but at other wavelengths he looked bright, like a light brown dwarf.
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Caselden discovered Accident used an online program he created to find brown dwarfs recorded by NASA through the Near-Earth Object Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) initiative, which began in 2013.
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Image source, IPAC/CALTECH
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Astronomers say there may be more brown dwarfs than we know.
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Scientists estimate Accident’s age to be between 10 billion and 13 billion years, or twice the average age of brown dwarfs known to astronomers.
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This age range suggests Accident formed during a phase when our Milky Way galaxy was very young and when it had a different chemical makeup.
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Therefore, in light of this Accident discovery, there may be more brown dwarfs in our galaxy, scientists say.
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The researchers attempted to observe the Accident using a telescope at the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii. At infrared wavelengths, it is so faint as to be undetectable, confirming the analysis that it is indeed cold and very old.
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Also, judging by its very fast rotation, the researchers estimate that Accident is an old resident of our galaxy.
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Further observations also show that methane levels are low when compared to other brown dwarfs.
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These characteristics support the analysis that Accident formed shortly after the birth of the Milky Way about 13.6 billion years ago. At that point, the Milky Way was formed mostly by hydrogen and helium; only a small amount of carbon, an essential element for creating methane.
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“It’s not too surprising to find a brown dwarf this old. What’s puzzling is that it was found in our ‘backyard’,” said astrophysicist Federico Marocco who wrote the report on the Accident study.
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“In our view, a brown dwarf [seperti Accident] it does exist, but it’s really very rare,” said Marocco.
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“We are very lucky to find it in a location so close to our Solar System. It’s a pleasant accident …” he said.
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