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"Finding brown dwarfs near our sun is like discovering there's a hidden house on your block that you didn't know about," says Michael Cushing, a WISE team member at JPL. "It's thrilling to me to know we've got neighbors out there yet to be discovered. With WISE, we may even find a brown dwarf closer to us than our closest known star."
Originally posted by SheopleNation
Originally posted by stereologistThis is science. There is no theory involved.
Wrong. Sure it's Science. We would have never been able to look into deep space without it, But you're mistaken when you claim that "there is no theory involved". Theory, and like Spikey said speculation, are everywhere and in between when studying Brown Dwarfs. ~SheopleNationedit on 29-8-2011 by SheopleNation because: TypO
Originally posted by letscit
reply to post by Xcalibur254
is it possible for a planet to only emit a very faint red glow?
Originally posted by letscit
intersting but probably not peer-reviewed. just fact.
"Finding brown dwarfs near our sun is like discovering there's a hidden house on your block that you didn't know about," says Michael Cushing, a WISE team member at JPL. "It's thrilling to me to know we've got neighbors out there yet to be discovered. With WISE, we may even find a brown dwarf closer to us than our closest known star."
Originally posted by Xcalibur254
reply to post by letscit
A planet can emit no light of its own. Depending on its atmosphere the reflected light could appear red. However, if it is producing its own glow than it must be a star that is capable of sustaining fusion.
Scientists using data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have discovered six "Y dwarfs"-- star-like bodies with temperatures as cool as the human body.
Scientists have found what is considered the darkest planet so far discovered - a body the size of the biggest planet in our solar system, which emits only a "faint red glow," despite orbiting extremely close to its sun. According to data gathered so far, the planet, first discovered about five years ago, is darker than coal or black acrylic paint.
In the image at the top of the page, various frequencies of X-rays are shown in red, green, and blue. Since X-rays are invisible, the colors are arbitrary and are either assigned by a computer program or a graphic interpreter who's job is to create images for public release. The interesting thing about the X-ray distribution is that they are englobing the central star, with tendrils of plasma interconnecting other glowing regions.
Sorry for the butt-in, but certainly. It is possible for a planet to emit light of its own. However, this does not imply that a planet or other space-borne body will not reflect light from an outside source. When you look at Jupiter or Saturn or Pluto, they are visible, not because they emit light, they are visible because they reflect light. This is why when the earth is between the moon and the sun we do not see all of the visible moon's surface. The earth is blocking the sunlight from reaching a portion of the moon. The moon does not emit light, it simply reflects light.
Originally posted by letscit
reply to post by Xcalibur254
is it possible for a planet to only emit a very faint red glow?
www.astro.princeton.edu...
Hot-Jupiters are generally expected to be dark. Significant absorption due to the broad wings of the sodium and potassium D lines is thought to dominate their visible spectra (Sudarsky et al. 2000), leading to low albedos of a few percent.