OTS 44
Encyclopedia
OTS 44 is a brown dwarf
about 550 light-year
s away in the constellation
Chamaeleon
. It is among the smallest known brown dwarfs.
OTS 44 has a mass of about 15 times that of Jupiter
, or about 1.5 % that of the Sun
. Its radius is about 20% of the Sun.
There are indications that OTS is surrounded by a disc of dust and particles of stone and ice, a disc that could eventually develop into a planetary system
.
Brown dwarf
Brown dwarfs are sub-stellar objects which are too low in mass to sustain hydrogen-1 fusion reactions in their cores, which is characteristic of stars on the main sequence. Brown dwarfs have fully convective surfaces and interiors, with no chemical differentiation by depth...
about 550 light-year
Light-year
A light-year, also light year or lightyear is a unit of length, equal to just under 10 trillion kilometres...
s away in the constellation
Constellation
In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....
Chamaeleon
Chamaeleon
Chamaeleon is a small constellation in the southern sky. It is named after the chameleon, a form of lizard. It was first defined in the sixteenth century.-History:...
. It is among the smallest known brown dwarfs.
OTS 44 has a mass of about 15 times that of Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
, or about 1.5 % that of the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
. Its radius is about 20% of the Sun.
There are indications that OTS is surrounded by a disc of dust and particles of stone and ice, a disc that could eventually develop into a planetary system
Planetary system
A planetary system consists of the various non-stellar objects orbiting a star such as planets, dwarf planets , asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and cosmic dust...
.
See also
- SCR 1845-6357SCR 1845-6357SCR 1845-6357 is a binary system, about 12.6 light-years away in the constellation Pavo. The primary is a faint red dwarf star. It has a brown dwarf companion.-SCR 1845-6357 A:...
, a binary system comprising a red dwarf and a brown dwarf - Cha 110913-773444Cha 110913-773444Cha 110913-773444 is an astronomical object surrounded by what appears to be a protoplanetary disk...
, an astronomical object (that may be a free-floating planet) surrounded by what appears to be a protoplanetary disk
External links
- Astronomers Discover Beginnings of 'Mini' Solar System (Spitzer Space TelescopeSpitzer Space TelescopeThe Spitzer Space Telescope , formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility is an infrared space observatory launched in 2003...
)