A new discovery in the world of astronomy has broken records and captured the attention of scientists and space enthusiasts alike. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have discovered a brown dwarf, named WD0032-317B, that is hotter than the surface of the Earth’s sun. Brown dwarfs are objects that fall between stars and planets in the cosmic hierarchy, with a mass that is too low to ignite hydrogen fusion, but high enough to ignite deuterium fusion. This particular brown dwarf has a surface temperature of 7,727 degrees Celsius, making it the hottest brown dwarf ever discovered.
Despite its high temperature, WD0032-317B is not a star, but rather a brown dwarf that orbits a white dwarf star. This unique arrangement allows for the brown dwarf to be easily observed, as the signals from the planet can be filtered out from those of the star. The white dwarf star is extremely dense and hot, with a temperature of 36,726.85 degrees Celsius, and the brown dwarf orbits it in just 2.3 hours. This close proximity means that the brown dwarf is tidally locked, with one side always facing the sun and the other in constant darkness.
The discovery of this hot brown dwarf is significant not only for its record-breaking temperature, but also for the insights it provides into the formation and evolution of celestial objects. The intense heat causes the molecules on the planet’s surface to break down into atoms, which are then slowly stripped away into space, causing the brown dwarf to evaporate. This process is similar to what happens to comets as they approach the sun. The researchers estimate that WD0032-317B has a mass between 75 and 88 times that of Jupiter, making it a valuable object for studying the properties and behavior of brown dwarfs.
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