Abstract
Brown dwarfs are celestial objects that form in the same manner as stars, but which, due to their low mass, fail to generate sufficient energy during the initial collapse to achieve central temperatures that are capable of igniting hydrogen fusion. Lacking a long-lived energy source, brown dwarfs cool and fade to extremely low-luminosities on timescales that are short by astronomical standards. After a long drought, many examples have been discovered over the past 15 years, both as isolated objects in the field and as companions of known nearby stars. Most have extremely low surface temperatures, complex molecule-dominated atmospheres, and populate the new spectral classes L and T. This chapter summarizes our current knowledge of the basic characteristics of these low-mass objects and gives brief consideration to likely developments in the near future.
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Notes
- 1.
For a more extensive historical discussion of brown dwarf discoveries, see Reid and Hawley (2005), Chapter 6.
- 2.
It is probably fair to say that these colors came as a surprise to most observers, who were generally focused on searching for objects that were extremely red at all wavelengths. This should not have been a surprise, since Tsuji (1964) predicted exactly these characteristics almost three decades before the discovery of Gl 229B.
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Thanks to Rachel Osten, Sarah Schmidt, Daniel Apai and, particularly Suzanne Hawley for reading and commenting on an earlier draft of this manuscript.
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Reid, I.N. (2013). Brown Dwarfs. In: Oswalt, T.D., Barstow, M.A. (eds) Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5615-1_7
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