Clocking the fastest-spinning brown dwarfs

Dragon

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Post n°1

Clocking the fastest-spinning brown dwarfs

Post by Dragon Fri Apr 09, 2021 4:37 am

Using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have identified the three fastest-spinning brown dwarfs ever found.

More massive than most planets but not quite heavy enough to ignite like stars, brown dwarfs are cosmic in-betweeners.

And though they aren't as well known as stars and planets to most people, they are thought to number in the billions in our galaxy.

Source

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Clocking the fastest-spinning brown dwarfs 334pu7m

Dragon

Dragon: Senior Administrator; Posts : 10650
Points : 31564
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Join date : 2018-01-18

Post n°2

Re: Clocking the fastest-spinning brown dwarfs

Post by Dragon Fri Apr 09, 2021 4:39 am

Clocking the fastest-spinning brown dwarfs Browndwarf

Credit: NOIRLab

Brown Dwarf illustration.

The rapidly rotating brown dwarfs are all about the same diameter as Jupiter but between 40 and 70 times more massive.

They each rotate about once per hour, while the next-fastest known brown dwarfs rotate about once every 1.4 hours and Jupiter spins once every 10 hours.

Based on their size, that means the largest of the three brown dwarfs whips around at more than 60 miles per second (100 kilometers per second), or about 220,000 miles per hour (360,000 kilometers per hour).

Source / Image Courtesy

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Clocking the fastest-spinning brown dwarfs 334pu7m