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Scientists have discovered a cold, weak “super-planet” that has remained elusive to traditional infrared survey methods.
Observations from the Low-Frequency Array, or LOFAR radio telescope, revealed a brown dwarf, which the researchers designated BDR J1750 + 3809 and nicknamed Elegast. Brown dwarfs are sometimes called failed stars or super-planets because they are too small to be considered stars, but too large to be considered planets.
Usually, brown dwarfs are discovered by infrared surveys of the sky. Elegast, however, represents the first subcellular object to be detected using a radio telescope, according to a statement from the University of Hawaii.
Related: Brown dwarfs: the weird failed stars of the universe explained (infographic)
“This work opens up a whole new method to find the colder objects floating in the vicinity of the sun, which would otherwise be too faint to be discovered with the methods used over the past 25 years, ”said Michael Liu, study co-author and researcher at the Institute of Astronomy ‘University of Hawaii.
Since brown dwarfs are too small to become stars, they do not undergo the same nuclear fusion reactions as power up shining stars, like our sun. As a result, they’re smaller, darker, and cooler than normal stars, making them harder to find using conventional methods, such as infrared instruments. However, brown dwarfs can emit light at radio wavelengths.
Researchers discovered Elegast for the first time using the PROMISES radio telescope based in the Netherlands. Their observations were later confirmed using the Gemini International Observatory in Hawaii and Chile and the NASA infrared telescope facility, which is operated by the University of Hawaii.
“We asked ourselves: ‘Why point our radio telescope to the cataloged brown dwarfs? Harish Vedantham, lead author of the study and astronomer at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), said in the statement. “Let’s just make a big picture of the sky and find these objects directly radio-controlled.”
Using the LOFAR instrument to detect Elegast represents an innovative approach that could help scientists discover other celestial objects, such as giant gas exoplanets, which are too cold or too weak to be detected by infrared surveys, the release said.
The new research was published on November 9 in the letters of the astrophysical journal.
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