A celestial object intermediate in size between a giant planet and a small star, believed to emit mainly infrared radiation.
〔天文〕棕矮星
Example sentencesExamples
The research team targeted young stars since planets and brown dwarfs are brighter when they are young.
In February and March of this year, the astronomers took new images of the young brown dwarf and its giant planet companion with the NACO instrument on European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in northern Chile.
Almost the size of a brown dwarf star, it was a gas giant planet that had been wandering loose in interstellar space, and our star had attracted it.
The red object appears to be a planet orbiting the brighter brown dwarf star, seen here as blue-white.
Both extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs give off most of their energy in the infrared region of the spectrum.
Definition of brown dwarf in US English:
brown dwarf
nounbraʊn d(w)ɔrf
Astronomy
A celestial object intermediate in size between a giant planet and a small star, believed to emit mainly infrared radiation.
〔天文〕棕矮星
Example sentencesExamples
In February and March of this year, the astronomers took new images of the young brown dwarf and its giant planet companion with the NACO instrument on European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in northern Chile.
The red object appears to be a planet orbiting the brighter brown dwarf star, seen here as blue-white.
Almost the size of a brown dwarf star, it was a gas giant planet that had been wandering loose in interstellar space, and our star had attracted it.
The research team targeted young stars since planets and brown dwarfs are brighter when they are young.
Both extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs give off most of their energy in the infrared region of the spectrum.