NASA for the first time measured wind speed on a spherical body which is about 13 times the mass of Jupiter. You might be thinking what’s this much special on that, isn’t?
What if that body is a Brown Dwarf ?!!. Yeah, it’s true; NASA measured the speed of wind on a ‘failed’ star. Due to its small size and low interior pressure, it can’t glow like the sun by initiating fusion in its core. Stars are formed by the collapse of clouds in nebulae. But some times this process won’t result in the formation of a shining superstar, instead, they give birth to the brown dwarf. But they are also special in its way. Yeah, Imperfections in the formation won’t make you inconsequential but make you uncommon and adroit. We have known it through Peter Dinklage, The Lord Tyrion Lannister.?
Brown Dwarf is a special guy to Scientists because this one was an important missing link between star and planets.
It can explain the formation of planets like gas giants and can help us in studying the wind of gas giants like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Brown dwarf was only a theoretical concept until it was first discovered in 1994. From then onwards we are studying this little giant. At last, for the first time, NASA measured the wind speed on a brown dwarf- Officially named 2MASS J10475385+2124234, only 32 light-years from Earth.
Our scientist used a new technique to measure the wind speed. It was not easy like measuring wind on earth and other planets by sending satellites and spacecraft. But were lucky to have a veteran telescope Spitzer Space Telescope. We observed the motion of the upper layer of brown dwarf using this telescope. But, how do we know that this motion is wind?
What if that motion is simply the rotation of star?
For that, we need to know about the interior of this brown dwarf. Due to high pressure at the interior of this dwarf, most of the gases would be tightly packed. As a result, its Interior behave like a solid core. As the interior rotates, it pulls the upper layer along so that the two are almost in synch. But our deep studies and observation proved that this atmospheric layer moves in little different speed. So we reached in a conclusion that this must be the wind. This brown dwarf constantly emits infrared light. By observing this Infrared radiation using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope scientists measured its atmospheric speed.
It was necessary to find the speed of the interior to calculate the accurate speed of wind on the atmosphere. We found that the magnetic field which is generated by the interior of this brown dwarf accelerates the charged particles. Due to this, they emit radio waves. We captured this radio waves using the radio telescopes in the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in New Mexico.
From these two data, NASA found that the winds on 2MASS J10475385+2124234 flow east to west at roughly 1,450 mph, plus or minus 690 mph (1,110 km/h). That’s considerably faster than the average winds in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere.
To check the accuracy, NASA did the same observation for Jupiter. And they got the exact speed value which a probe calculated by its close observation. The application of this new method will be wide-ranging. This will help us in measuring winds in Both gas giants and ice giants. This goona helps us to study the atmosphere of exoplanets and its winds. We should say thanks to this marvellous team behind this remarkable invention.
– ARUN S
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Read an article on The Evolution of Stars
Author
