Astronomers Discover a Brown Dwarf Escaping the Milky Way
The object, named CWISE J1249, is racing through space at an astonishing speed of more than 1 million kilometers per hour, marking the first time such a phenomenon has been observed.
A team of amateur astronomers, collaborating with NASA professionals, has identified a brown dwarf moving so fast that it is set to escape the Milky Way. The object, named CWISE J1249, is racing through space at an astonishing speed of more than 1 million kilometers per hour, marking the first time such a phenomenon has been observed.
Brown dwarfs, often referred to as "failed stars," are celestial bodies with insufficient mass to sustain hydrogen fusion, making them dim and elusive. CWISE J1249, discovered through NASA's "Backyard Worlds: Planet 9" project, is unique not only for its speed but also for its low mass, which complicates its classification as either a low-mass star or a brown dwarf.
Scientists are exploring two possible scenarios to explain its high velocity. One theory suggests CWISE J1249 may have been part of a binary system with a white dwarf, which exploded as a supernova and propelled the brown dwarf out of the galaxy. Another hypothesis points to the influence of black holes in a dense star cluster that might have flung the object into space.