ASTRONOMERS have spotted three 鈥渕issing links鈥� in the evolution of the failed
stars called brown dwarfs.
Newly formed brown dwarfs are thought to cool steadily from an initial
temperature of around 3500 K. But observations have only revealed young brown
dwarfs hotter than 1600 K and older ones cooler than 900 K, leading to
speculation that their mid-phase evolution is especially quick.
That now seems unlikely, says Sandy Leggett of the UK Infrared Telescope in
Hilo, Hawaii, who will publish the discovery of three mid-temperature dwarfs in
an upcoming paper in the Astrophysical Journal. Detecting three
鈥渄emonstrates that they are not rare鈥�, she says.
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