U.S. scientists have obtained a photograph of a planet-like star which they claim to be the coldest object ever caught on lens outside our solar system. Its temperature is like a hot summer day in Arizona.
Kevin Luhman, Penn State’s Associate Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, classifies this star as a “brown dwarf” – an object that formed just like a star out of a massive cloud of dust and gas, but the mass that it accumulates is not enough to ignite thermonuclear reactions in its core, resulting in a failed star that is very cold.
“This planet-like companion is the coldest object ever directly photographed outside our solar system,” Luhman said.
“Its mass is about the same as many of the known extra-solar planets; about six to nine times the mass of Jupiter, but in other ways it is more like a star. Essentially, what we have found is a very small star with an atmospheric temperature about as cool as the Earth’s,” he said.
