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Astrophysics

Illuminating brown dwarfs

Nature volume 533, pages 330–331 (2016)Cite this article

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Objects known as brown dwarfs are midway between stars and planets in mass. Observations of a hot brown dwarf irradiated by a nearby star will help to fill a gap in our knowledge of the atmospheres of fluid planetary objects. See Letter p.366

The illumination received from a nearby star has a crucial role in shaping an atmosphere's three-dimensional temperature structure, chemistry, climate and weather. Less obviously, the irradiation of one star by another nearby star — as commonly occurs in tightly orbiting binary star systems — can lead to observable1 temperature differences between the illuminated star's 'dayside' and its 'nightside'. However, only a few observations have documented the effect of stellar irradiation on the atmospheres of a class of object that is intermediate in mass between stars and planets: brown dwarfs. On page 366 of this issue, Hernández Santisteban et al.2 present intriguing observations to characterize the atmosphere and estimate the day–night temperature difference for a brown dwarf irradiated by a nearby star.

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Figure 1: A wide parameter space for fluid planetary bodies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Adam P. Showman is in the Department of Planetary Sciences and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA.,

    Adam P. Showman

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  1. Adam P. Showman
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Correspondence to Adam P. Showman.

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Showman, A. Illuminating brown dwarfs. Nature 533, 330–331 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/533330a

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