The distribution and motions of the
clouds on brown dwarfs in this study are more similar to those seen on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Astronomers just spotted auroras
on a brown dwarf for the first time, but this is just the latest case of known extraterrestrial auroras
Outside of our solar system, auroras, which indicate the presence of a magnetosphere, have been
spotted on brown dwarfs — objects that are bigger than planets but smaller than stars.
University of Arizona researcher Theodora Karalidi used a supercomputer and a new computer algorithm to create maps of how clouds
travel on these brown dwarfs.
In a paper published 20 March in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team
reports on a brown dwarf about 63 light - years away whose temperature is barely 300 kelvin.
For the moment,
data on brown dwarfs can be used as a stand - in for contemplating extrasolar worlds we hope to study with future instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope.
Clearly, evolutionary time -
scales on a brown dwarf planet could be much different from those on Earth, but the paper notes that a habitability duration of less than 0.1 billion years would present real issues about the viability of complex life.
Although northern lights also exist on giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn, the newly discovered aurorae are thousands of times more powerful; furthermore, the same electrons that trigger these aurorae may drive weather
patterns on brown dwarfs, some of which have clouds.
Helling showed that the glittery clouds
on brown dwarfs can create such charges.
They used an hour and a half of
it on the brown dwarf.