| arya | Date: Sunday, 31-August-2014, 2:27 PM | Message # 1 |
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| Astronomers: ‘First Evidence’ Of Water Clouds Discovered Outside Solar System
WASHINGTON (CBS DC) – Astronomers say they’ve discovered water ice clouds on a “brown dwarf” just 7.3 light-years from Earth – the first candidate outside our own solar system to have direct evidence of water clouds.
The water ice clouds were discovered by Kevin Luhman, an astronomer at Penn State University, using NASA’s WISE infrared space telescope, Science Mag reports. The water ice clouds, if confirmed, would be less than twice the distance of Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to our sun.
The water ice clouds are shrouding a Jupiter-sized “brown dwarf,” which is a failed star that has too little mass to sustain nuclear reactions and thus cools and fades in orbit. Ground-based observatory has been unable to view the dim object, but the brown dwarf could provide astronomers with more information on cool giant planets orbiting suns outside our solar system.
Read more/Full article/source - http://washington.cbslocal.com/2014....-system
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