ASTRON 10 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Brown Dwarf, Jupiter Mass, Deuterium
Document Summary
There is a gap on the mass/temperature chart between stars and jupiter. Astronomers asked why there were so many objects missing in this mass range. 20 years ago, first data came in. The issue was the lack of telescopes that could see very far away objects that were also very faint. 1992 was the first year they started using adequate technology. When one gets a new telescope, a full sky survey is often done to see what couldn"t be seen before. Planetary astronomers called them gas giants (biggest of the planetary objects) Stellar astronomers call them brown dwarfs (smaller than any star) Brown isn"t significant (dwarfs aren"t actually brown) They actually describe the same range of objects. A split in the brown dwarf scales occurs at 13 jupiter masses. At above this mass, deuterium fusion can occur. Stated but never directly observed, may not be directly observable. Fusion of lithium is possible at a jupiter mass.
