It is also thought that planetsįorm by a different mechanism from brown dwarfs. Masses below about 1 percent of the mass of the Sun, or 10 times the mass of The dividing line between planets and brown dwarfs occurs with objects that have Heat generated by the release of gravitational energy as they slowly After that brown dwarfs glow because of the Very young, they generate some energy from the fusion of heavy hydrogen, or deuterium, into helium nuclei, but this supply is used up This marks the dividing line between red dwarf stars and brown dwarfs. (Illustration: NASA/CXC/K.Arcand)Īccording to theory, an object that has a mass of less than about 8 percent of the mass of the SunĬannot sustain significant nuclear fusion Although brown dwarfs are similar in size to Jupiter, they are much more dense and produce their own light whereas Jupiter shines with reflected light from the Sun. The approximate size of a brown dwarf (center) compared to Jupiter left) and the Sun (right).
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