A squad of uranologist has discovered the most powerful aurora ever observed . But unlike our own Northern Lights , this astronomic phenomenon can be found 18 wanton years aside in the sky above the brown dwarf LSR J1835 + 3259 .
The international team of stargazers observed the remote aurora using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico and the Hale telescope in San Diego . They found a serial of colorful green and yellow streaks above the star topology , a issue of atomic number 8 and sodium ions being hit by electrons in its atmosphere . There are also red emissions produced by similar collision with hydrogen , though the ensue light is really too red for man to see . But what could be visualize would be incredible : the scientists report that the sunrise would seem 1,000,000 time brighter than our own Northern Lights . The results arepublished in Nature , and the above image is an artist ’s interpretation .
Interestingly , the result also clear a trouble that ’s bugged some stargazer for year . In the past tense , brown dwarf — which are Brobdingnagian balls of hot throttle that are kind of part - satellite , part - star — have been seen to dim and brighten sporadically . The raw reflexion also comes and go , as the astronomical body rotates on its axis every 2 hours . The team figure that daybreak on other chocolate-brown nanus could calculate for the varying brightness . The observance also hints that we should guess a little differently about brown dwarves generally . “ They have cool atmosphere with clouds in , just like Jupiter , and now we see they have auroras , too , ” says Stuart Littlefairtold the Guardian . “ It ’s more grounds we should think of them as scale - up satellite more than scaled - down stars . ”
lamentably , even thoughh the aurora is so bright , you wo n’t be seeing it for yourself any time soon : even at full brightness , the brown dwarf is reported to be 150,000 time too dim to be remark by the human middle .
[ NatureviaGuardian ]
range of a function by Chuck Carter and Gregg Hallinan / Caltech
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