Rare double brown dwarf eclipse spotted in surprise discovery

[Admin]

Astronomers scouring the cosmos for new planets have made a chance discovery, identifying the rare eclipse of two brown dwarfs.

Rare double brown dwarf eclipse spotted in surprise discovery : Read more

 

[rod]

Astronomers scouring the cosmos for new planets have made a chance discovery, identifying the rare eclipse of two brown dwarfs.

Rare double brown dwarf eclipse spotted in surprise discovery : Read more

"What also made this a rare find was that there was a third component orbiting farther away from the two brown dwarfs, making it a brown dwarf triple system. Yet another unique feature of this system is that 2M1510 is among a very small group of brown dwarfs that scientists can determine the age of.

"Collecting a combination of mass, radius and age is really rare for a star, let alone for a brown dwarf, Amaury Triaud, the primary author of this study and a Birmingham Fellow at the University of Birmingham in the U.K., said in the statement. "Usually one or more of these measurements is missing."

By filling in these missing pieces, "we were able to verify theoretical models for how brown dwarfs cool, models which are over 30 years old. We found models match remarkably well with the observations, a testament to human ingenuity," Triaud added. "

I read the published work link provided, quite a report. The two brown dwarfs are considered about 40 Mjup and 39.3 Mjup with radii sum 3.15Rjup so I divided by 2 and arrived at 1.575Rjup (radius) for each This suggest the brown dwarfs have mean density near 12.7 g cm^3. Interesting geek stats in the published paper. Nothing like these small puppies in our solar system

 

[Wolfern]

"What also made this a rare find was that there was a third component orbiting farther away from the two brown dwarfs, making it a brown dwarf triple system. Yet another unique feature of this system is that 2M1510 is among a very small group of brown dwarfs that scientists can determine the age of.

"Collecting a combination of mass, radius and age is really rare for a star, let alone for a brown dwarf, Amaury Triaud, the primary author of this study and a Birmingham Fellow at the University of Birmingham in the U.K., said in the statement. "Usually one or more of these measurements is missing."

By filling in these missing pieces, "we were able to verify theoretical models for how brown dwarfs cool, models which are over 30 years old. We found models match remarkably well with the observations, a testament to human ingenuity," Triaud added. "

I read the published work link provided, quite a report. The two brown dwarfs are considered about 40 Mjup and 39.3 Mjup with radii sum 3.15Rjup so I divided by 2 and arrived at 1.575Rjup (radius) for each This suggest the brown dwarfs have mean density near 12.7 g cm^3. Interesting geek stats in the published paper. Nothing like these small puppies in our solar system

I assume it is possible for one to determine the size, mass and possibly even the distance as "facts" about these stars. What is not possible is determining the age. That is pure speculation because it assumes there have been long ages and that scientists can quantify those ages. None of that is actually possible. No one was there when the stars were created, nor has anyone been able to go back in time to verify the suppositions. <<Edited by moderator>>

 

[rod]

FYI, eclipsing binaries are interesting measurements but I prefer direct methods like Sirius A and B when they can be determined for measuring star size, mass, and orbital periods. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017ApJ...840...70B/abstract

 

[Wolfern]

That still does not determine age. That is a measurement that cannot be verified with any accuracy, since there are too many assumptions one has to make based on an imputed faith in a hypothisy that is untestable, so not even a theory.