New findings by an international team of researchers recently revealed the scorching discovery of a brown dwarf that far eclipses the level of heat emitted by the sun.
Sitting 1,400 light-years from Earth, the brown dwarf has since been named WD0032-317B. It was discovered by a team led by astrophysicist Na’ama Hallakoun from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
The brown dwarf has an orbit that is so close to its host star, that it maintains a temperature above 8,000 Kelvin (7,727 degrees Celsius, or 13,940 Fahrenheit), which officials note is “hot enough to break apart the molecules in its atmosphere into their composite atoms.” For comparison, the temperature of the sun is 5,778 Kelvin.
What makes this particular brown dwarf even more interesting is that while brown dwarfs do burn hotter than planets, officials say they typically burn cooler than the coolest red dwarf stars, as they are unable to reach hot temperatures on their own.
In addition to the exciting discovery of such an abnormally hot object, the team of astronomers have stated the brown dwarf may be able to give scientists a better understanding of the planet Jupiter, as well as other gas giants orbiting hot, massive stars that are difficult to study on their own due to the activity and rotation rates of the stars.