NASA’s Webb Identifies Tiniest Free-Floating Brown Dwarf

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NASA’s Webb Identifies Tiniest Free-Floating Brown Dwarf

Brown dwarfs are objects that straddle the dividing line between stars and planets. They form like stars, growing dense enough to collapse under their own gravity, but they never become dense and hot enough to begin fusing hydrogen and turn into a star. At the low end of the scale, some brown dwarfs are comparable with giant planets, weighing just a few times the mass of Jupiter.

What are the smallest stars?

Astronomers are trying to determine the smallest object that can form in a star-like manner. A team using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has identified the new record-holder: a tiny, free-floating brown dwarf with only three to four times the mass of Jupiter.

“One basic question you’ll find in every astronomy textbook is, what are the smallest stars? That’s what we’re trying to answer,” explained lead author Kevin Luhman of Pennsylvania State University.

Search Strategy

To locate this newfound brown dwarf, Luhman and his colleague, Catarina Alves de Oliveira, chose to study the star cluster IC 348, located about 1,000 light-years away in the Perseus star-forming region. This cluster is young, only about 5 million years old. As a result, any brown dwarfs would still be relatively bright in infrared light, glowing from the heat of their formation.

The team first imaged the center of the cluster using Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) to identify brown dwarf candidates from their brightness and colors. They followed up on the most promising targets using Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) microshutter array.

Image: Star Cluster IC438

Webb’s infrared sensitivity was crucial, allowing the team to detect fainter objects than ground-based telescopes. In addition, Webb’s sharp vision enabled them to determine which red objects were pinpoint brown dwarfs and which were blobby background galaxies.

This winnowing process led to three intriguing targets weighing three to eight Jupiter masses, with surface temperatures ranging from 1,500 to 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit (830 to 1,500 degrees Celsius). The smallest of these weighs just three to four times Jupiter, according to computer models.

Explaining how such a small brown dwarf could form is theoretically challenging. A heavy and dense cloud of gas has plenty of gravity to collapse and form a star. However, because of its weaker gravity, it should be more difficult for a small cloud to collapse to form a brown dwarf, and that is especially true for brown dwarfs with the masses of giant planets.

“It’s pretty easy for current models to make giant planets in a disk around a star,” said Catarina Alves de Oliveira of ESA (European Space Agency), principal investigator on the observing program. “But in this cluster, it would be unlikely this object formed in a disk, instead forming like a star, and three Jupiter masses is 300 times smaller than our Sun. So we have to ask, how does the star formation process operate at such very, very small masses?”

A Mystery Molecule

In addition to giving clues about the star-formation process, tiny brown dwarfs also can help astronomers better understand exoplanets. The least massive brown dwarfs overlap with the largest exoplanets; therefore, they would be expected to have some similar properties. However, a free-floating brown dwarf is easier to study than a giant exoplanet since the latter is hidden within the glare of its host star.

Two of the brown dwarfs identified in this survey show the spectral signature of an unidentified hydrocarbon, or molecule containing both hydrogen and carbon atoms. The same infrared signature was detected by NASA’s Cassini mission in the atmospheres of Saturn and its moon Titan. It has also been seen in the interstellar medium, or gas between stars.

“This is the first time we’ve detected this molecule in the atmosphere of an object outside our solar system,” explained Alves de Oliveira. “Models for brown dwarf atmospheres don’t predict its existence. We’re looking at objects with younger ages and lower masses than we ever have before, and we’re seeing something new and unexpected.”

Image: Three Brown Dwarfs

Brown Dwarf or Rogue Planet?

Since the objects are well within the mass range of giant planets, it raises the question of whether they are actually brown dwarfs, or if they’re really rogue planets that were ejected from planetary systems. While the team can’t rule out the latter, they argue that they are far more likely to be a brown dwarf than an ejected planet.

An ejected giant planet is unlikely for two reasons. First, such planets are uncommon in general compared to planets with smaller masses. Second, most stars are low-mass stars, and giant planets are especially rare among those stars. As a result, it’s unlikely that most of the stars in IC 348 (which are low-mass stars) are capable of producing such massive planets. In addition, since the cluster is only 5 million years old, there probably hasn’t been enough time for giant planets to form and then be ejected from their systems.

The discovery of more such objects will help clarify their status. Theories suggest that rogue planets are more likely to be found in the outskirts of a star cluster, so expanding the search area may identify them if they exist within IC 348.

Future work may also include longer surveys that can detect fainter, smaller objects. The short survey conducted by the team was expected to detect objects as small as twice the mass of Jupiter. Longer surveys could easily reach one Jupiter mass.

These observations were taken as part of Guaranteed Time Observation program 1229. The results were published in the Astronomical Journal.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

Downloads

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Read/Download the research results released in The Astronomical Journal.

Right click the images in this article to open a larger version in a new tab/window.

Media Contacts

Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro– rob.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA’s  Goddard Space Flight Center, , Greenbelt, Md.

Hannah Braun – hbraun@stsci.edu , Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

Related Information

Lifecycle of Stars

More Webb News – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/

More Webb Images – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/

Webb Mission Page – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/

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6 Min Read

NASA’s Webb Identifies Tiniest Free-Floating Brown Dwarf

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Steve Sabia

NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Top 20 Stories of 2023

Here’s a look back at 2023’s most significant events at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida:

JANUARY
Day of Remembrance Marks 20th Anniversary of Columbia Tragedy 

NASA senior management and guests paid tribute to the crew members of space shuttle Columbia, as well as other astronauts who perished in the line of duty, during the agency’s Annual Day of Remembrance held at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.   

JANUARY
Facilities, Spacecraft Prepped for Artemis II Mission 

Teams with Exploration Ground Systems began upgrading and modifying facilities at Kennedy to support Artemis II, paving the way for human exploration to the Moon and Mars. Artemis II will be the first crewed flight of the agency’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.   

FEBRUARY
‘Famous’ Eagles Build New Nest at Kennedy

When storms badly damaged their original nest at the Florida spaceport, a well-known pair of American bald eagles built a new home nearby along Kennedy Parkway, providing a magnificent view of the majestic birds in their natural habitat.   

FEBRUARY
New Orion Test Article Makes a Splash

NASA’s Landing and Recovery team completed a rigorous round of testing on the new mock-up of the agency’s Orion spacecraft. This test article will be used to train NASA, Navy, and other Department of Defense personnel to retrieve astronauts from the Pacific Ocean after splashing down on Artemis Moon missions.   

MARCH
Crew-6 Lights up Florida Early-Morning Sky

A Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft roared off of Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39A at 12:34 a.m. EST March 2, kickstarting NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission. The launch carried NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, along with UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev to the International Space Station for a six-month science expedition mission.  

MARCH
Crew-5 Comes Back to Earth

NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina splashed down safely in the SpaceX Dragon Endurance in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida, at 9:02 p.m. EST March 11, returning to Earth after 157 days in space.  

MARCH
CRS-27 Launches to the Space Station

At 8:30 p.m. EDT March 14, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket rumbled off the pad at Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A, starting Dragon’s two-day journey to the International Space Station to deliver new science investigations, supplies, and equipment for Expedition 68 and 69 crews aboard the orbiting laboratory.

MARCH
Swamp Works Celebrates a Decade of Discoveries

In 2023, Swamp Works, which drew its inspiration from Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works in California, celebrated 10 years. The facility is devoted to innovation and leveraging skills and capabilities across the center, focusing on granular mechanics and regolith operations, applied chemistry, electrostatics and surface physics, advanced materials and systems, applied physics, and corrosion technology.  

MAY
Astronauts Complete Second All-Private Mission

Four private astronauts completed a successful Axiom Mission 2, the second all-private astronaut mission to the space station. Axiom Space astronauts Peggy Whitson, John Shoffner, Ali Alqarni, and Rayyanah Barnawi spent 10 days on the orbiting laboratory after lifting off at 5:37 p.m. EDT on May 21 from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center.

JUNE
Solar Arrays Delivered on CRS-28

Several thousand pounds of important research, crew supplies and hardware, including new solar arrays, were delivered to the space station following the June 5 launch of SpaceX’s 28th commercial resupply services mission for NASA from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A.  

JULY
Artemis Crews Get New Ride to the Pad

Teams from manufacturer Canoo Technologies Inc. of Torrance, California, delivered three specially designed, fully electric, environmentally friendly crew transportation vehicles to Kennedy on July 11. The vehicles will take Artemis crews on the final Earth-bound leg of their journey to the Moon before boarding their rocket and spacecraft.  

AUGUST
Crew-7 Carries International Crew to Space Station   

A Dragon spacecraft, named Endurance, launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket, carrying NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov to the space station on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission. Liftoff occurred at 3:27 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Aug. 26.  

AUGUST
Artemis II Crew Meets Their Ride Around the Moon 

Inside the high bay of Kennedy’s Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, Artemis II NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen visited the Orion spacecraft that will take them on a 10-day journey around the Moon as the first Artemis crew.  

SEPTEMBER
Crew-6 Completes Six-Month Mission  

NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, along with UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev splashed down safely in SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, named Endeavour, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, at 12:17 a.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 24, after 186 days in space.  

SEPTEMBER
Artemis II Astronauts Conduct Launch-Day Demonstration 

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, practiced the procedures they will undergo on launch day to prepare for their mission around the Moon. The Artemis II crew and teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program successfully completed the critical ground system tests at Kennedy on Sept. 20. 

OCTOBER
Psyche Launches to a Metal Asteroid

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft began its six-year voyage to an asteroid of the same name, a metal-rich world that could tell us more about the formation of rocky planets, after successfully launching aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy on Oct. 13.

OCTOBER
Progress Continues Toward NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight to Station 

NASA and Boeing are working to complete the agency’s verification and validation activities ahead of the Starliner spacecraft’s first flight with astronauts to the International Space Station. While Boeing is targeting March 2024 to have the spacecraft ready for flight, teams decided during a launch manifest evaluation that a launch in April will better accommodate upcoming crew rotations and cargo resupply missions this spring.  

OCTOBER
Sea Turtle Nests Set Kennedy Record  

A record number of sea turtle nests were built on the undisturbed beaches of the Florida spaceport in 2023. Biologists counted 13,935 sea turtle nests along Kennedy’s shoreline during the 2023 nesting season, 639 more nests than 2022 and the most found on center in a single year since record-keeping began in 1984.  

NOVEMBER
NASA, SpaceX Launch New Science, Hardware to Space Station 

Following a successful launch of NASA’s SpaceX 29th commercial resupply mission from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A, scientific experiments and technology demonstrations – including studies of enhanced optical communications and measurement of atmospheric waves – were delivered to the space station.  

DECEMBER
Kennedy Celebrates 25 Years of International Space Station Science

NASA Kennedy marked a quarter of a century of assembling and processing components and science missions for the International Space Station. In December 1998, the Unity module of the International Space Station was carried to orbit on STS-88 from Kennedy, helping kick off a 25-year legacy that includes over 3700 science investigations conducted to date on the orbiting laboratory by 273 people from 21 countries.   

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Jim Cawley

NASA: Some Icy Exoplanets May Have Habitable Oceans and Geysers

A NASA study expands the search for life beyond our solar system by indicating that 17 exoplanets (worlds outside our solar system) could have oceans of liquid water, an essential ingredient for life, beneath icy shells. Water from these oceans could occasionally erupt through the ice crust as geysers. The science team calculated the amount of geyser activity on these exoplanets, the first time these estimates have been made. They identified two exoplanets sufficiently close where signs of these eruptions could be observed with telescopes.

The search for life elsewhere in the Universe typically focuses on exoplanets that are in a star’s “habitable zone,” a distance where temperatures allow liquid water to persist on their surfaces. However, it’s possible for an exoplanet that’s too distant and cold to still have an ocean underneath an ice crust if it has enough internal heating. Such is the case in our solar system where Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, have subsurface oceans because they are heated by tides from the gravitational pull of the host planet and neighboring moons.

These subsurface oceans could harbor life if they have other necessities, such as an energy supply as well as elements and compounds used in biological molecules. On Earth, entire ecosystems thrive in complete darkness at the bottom of oceans near hydrothermal vents, which provide energy and nutrients.

“Our analyses predict that these 17 worlds may have ice-covered surfaces but receive enough internal heating from the decay of radioactive elements and tidal forces from their host stars to maintain internal oceans,” said Dr. Lynnae Quick of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Thanks to the amount of internal heating they experience, all planets in our study could also exhibit cryovolcanic eruptions in the form of geyser-like plumes.” Quick is lead author of a paper on the research published on October 4 in the Astrophysical Journal.

The team considered conditions on 17 confirmed exoplanets that are roughly Earth-sized but less dense, suggesting that they could have substantial amounts of ice and water instead of denser rock. Although the planets’ exact compositions remain unknown, initial estimates of their surface temperatures from previous studies all indicate that they are much colder than Earth, suggesting that their surfaces could be covered in ice.

The study improved estimates of each exoplanet’s surface temperature by recalculating using the known surface brightness and other properties of Europa and Enceladus as models. The team also estimated the total internal heating in these exoplanets by using the shape of each exoplanet’s orbit to get the heat generated from tides and adding it to the heat expected from radioactive activity. Surface temperature and total heating estimates gave the ice layer thickness for each exoplanet since the oceans cool and freeze at the surface while being heated from the interior. Finally, they compared these figures to Europa’s and used estimated levels of geyser activity on Europa as a conservative baseline to estimate geyser activity on the exoplanets.

They predict that surface temperatures are colder than previous estimates by up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees Celsius). Estimated ice shell thickness ranged from about 190 feet (58 meters) for Proxima Centauri b and one mile (1.6 kilometers) for LHS 1140 b to 24 miles (38.6 kilometers) for MOA 2007 BLG 192Lb, compared to Europa’s estimated average of 18 miles (almost 29 kilometers). Estimated geyser activity went from just 17.6 pounds per second (about 8 kilograms/second) for Kepler 441b to 639,640 pounds/second (290,000 kilograms/second) for LHS 1140 b and 13.2 million pounds/second (six million kilograms/second) for Proxima Centauri b, compared to Europa at 4,400 pounds/second (2,000 kilograms/second).

“Since our models predict that oceans could be found relatively close to the surfaces of Proxima Centauri b and LHS 1140 b, and their rate of geyser activity could exceed Europa’s by hundreds to thousands of times, telescopes are most likely to detect geological activity on these planets,” said Quick, who is presenting this research December 12 at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, California.

This activity could be seen when the exoplanet passes in front of its star. Certain colors of starlight could be dimmed or blocked by water vapor from the geysers. “Sporadic detections of water vapor in which the amount of water vapor detected varies with time, would suggest the presence of cryovolcanic eruptions,” said Quick. The water might contain other elements and compounds that could reveal if it can support life. Since elements and compounds absorb light at specific “signature” colors, analysis of the starlight would let scientists determine the geyser’s composition and evaluate the exoplanet’s habitability potential.

For planets like Proxima Centauri b that don’t cross their stars from our vantage point, geyser activity could be detected by powerful telescopes that are able to measure light that the exoplanet reflects while orbiting its star. Geysers would expel icy particles at the exoplanet’s surface which would cause the exoplanet to appear very bright and reflective.

The research was funded by NASA’s Habitable Worlds Program, the University of Washington’s Astrobiology Program, and the Virtual Planetary Laboratory, a member of the NASA Nexus for Exoplanet System Science coordination group.

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NASA’s Perseverance Rover Deciphers Ancient History of Martian Lake

Now at 1,000 days on Mars, the mission has traversed an ancient river and lake system, collecting valuable samples along the way.

Marking its 1,000th Martian day on the Red Planet, NASA’s Perseverance rover recently completed its exploration of the ancient river delta that holds evidence of a lake that filled Jezero Crater billions of years ago. The six-wheeled scientist has to date collected a total of 23 samples, revealing the geologic history of this region of Mars in the process.

One sample called “Lefroy Bay” contains a large quantity of fine-grained silica, a material known to preserve ancient fossils on Earth. Another, “Otis Peak,” holds a significant amount of phosphate, which is often associated with life as we know it. Both of these samples are also rich in carbonate, which can preserve a record of the environmental conditions from when the rock was formed.

The discoveries were shared Tuesday, Dec. 12, at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco.

“We picked Jezero Crater as a landing site because orbital imagery showed a delta – clear evidence that a large lake once filled the crater. A lake is a potentially habitable environment, and delta rocks are a great environment for entombing signs of ancient life as fossils in the geologic record,” said Perseverance’s project scientist, Ken Farley of Caltech. “After thorough exploration, we’ve pieced together the crater’s geologic history, charting its lake and river phase from beginning to end.”

Jezero formed from an asteroid impact almost 4 billion years ago. After Perseverance landed in February 2021, the mission team discovered the crater floor is made of igneous rock formed from magma underground or from volcanic activity at the surface. They have since found sandstone and mudstone, signaling the arrival of the first river in the crater hundreds of millions of years later. Above these rocks are salt-rich mudstones, signaling the presence of a shallow lake experiencing evaporation. The team thinks the lake eventually grew as wide as 22 miles (35 kilometers) in diameter and as deep as 100 feet (30 meters).

Later, fast-flowing water carried in boulders from outside Jezero, distributing them atop of the delta and elsewhere in the crater.

“We were able to see a broad outline of these chapters in Jezero’s history in orbital images, but it required getting up close with Perseverance to really understand the timeline in detail,” said Libby Ives, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages the mission.

Enticing Samples

The samples Perseverance gathers are about as big as a piece of classroom chalk and are stored in special metal tubes as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign, a joint effort by NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). Bringing the tubes to Earth would enable scientists to study the samples with powerful lab equipment too large to take to Mars.

To decide which samples to collect, Perseverance first uses an abrasion tool to wear away a patch of a prospective rock and then studies the rock’s chemistry using precision science instruments, including the JPL-built Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry, or PIXL.

At a target the team calls “Bills Bay,” PIXL spotted carbonates – minerals that form in watery environments with conditions that might be favorable for preserving organic molecules. (Organic molecules form by both geological and biological processes.) These rocks were also abundant with silica, a material that’s excellent at preserving organic molecules, including those related to life.

“On Earth, this fine-grained silica is what you often find in a location that was once sandy,” said JPL’s Morgan Cable, the deputy principal investigator of PIXL. “It’s the kind of environment where, on Earth, the remains of ancient life could be preserved and found later.”

Perseverance’s instruments are capable of detecting both microscopic, fossil-like structures and chemical changes that may have been left by ancient microbes, but they have yet to see evidence for either.

At another target PIXL examined, called “Ouzel Falls,” the instrument detected the presence of iron associated with phosphate. Phosphate is a component of DNA and the cell membranes of all known terrestrial life and is part of a molecule that helps cells carry energy.

After assessing PIXL’s findings on each of these abrasion patches, the team sent up commands for the rover to collect rock cores close by: Lefroy Bay was collected next to Bills Bay, and Otis Peak at Ouzel Falls.

“We have ideal conditions for finding signs of ancient life where we find carbonates and phosphates, which point to a watery, habitable environment, as well as silica, which is great at preservation,” Cable said.

Perseverance’s work is, of course, far from done. The mission’s ongoing fourth science campaign will explore Jezero Crater’s margin, near the canyon entrance where a river once flooded the crater floor. Rich carbonate deposits have been spotted along the margin, which stands out in orbital images like a ring within a bathtub.

More About the Mission

A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

For more about Perseverance:

mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

News Media Contacts

Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov

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Webb Sheds Light on an Exploded Star

Supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) shines in a new image from Dec. 10, 2023, from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) view of Cas A displays this stellar explosion at a resolution previously unreachable at these wavelengths, revealing intricate details of the expanding shell of material slamming into the gas shed by the star before it exploded.

Cas A is one of the most well-studied supernova remnants in all the cosmos. Over the years, ground-based and space-based observatories, including NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and retired Spitzer Space Telescope have assembled a multiwavelength picture of the object’s remnant.

However, astronomers have now entered a new era in the study of Cas A. In April 2023, Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) started this chapter, unveiling new and unexpected features within the inner shell of the supernova remnant. Many of those features are invisible in the new NIRCam image, and astronomers are investigating why.

Read on to find out what we can learn from this new image of Cassiopeia A.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University), T. Temim (Princeton University), I. De Looze (University of Gent)

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Monika Luabeya