Direct image of newly discovered brown dwarf captured

Astronomers using two Maunakea Observatories—Subaru Telescope and W. M. Keck Observatory—have discovered a key benchmark brown dwarf orbiting a sun-like star just 86 light-years from Earth that provides a key reference point for understanding the properties of the first directly-imaged exoplanets.

Named HD 33632 Ab, the brown dwarf is one of only a few known objects of its kind orbiting a near-twin of the sun at near-twin scales of our solar system (Mercury to Pluto).

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Credit: W. M. Keck Observatory

Direct image of HD 33632 Ab captured with scexao/charis. The companion (marked as "b") lies at a separation of about 20 AU from its star (located at the white cross), similar to the separations from the sun to Uranus and Neptune in our solar system.

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Astronomers have detected what appear to be bands of clouds streaking across the surface of a cool star-like body known as a brown dwarf.

The bands, resembling those that stripe the surface of Jupiter, were discovered using polarimetry, a technique that works in the same way that polarized sunglasses block out the glare of sunlight.