Starship Asterisk*

Today we were shown

Quite possibly, however, the red object is the first direct image of a planet beyond our Solar System

the description goes on to describe the "white dwarf" that this planet orbits.


BUT at look at the full res photo


http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/ ... so_big.jpg


describes it as Brown Dwarf 2M1207.



which is correct?


Thanks

As it reads now,

the bright white brown dwarf 2M1207b

I marked related word duplets with color. There's no more "white" below quoted text. Also, above it,

RJN wrote:The white object is surely a brown dwarf star.

I suppose he have read your post and made corrections.

[+] Q. about brown dwarfs. In article referenced at APOD,

author wrote:Brown dwarfs lack sufficient mass (about 80 Jupiters)... Giant planets (such as Jupiter) may be much less massive than brown dwarfs, but are about the same diameter

It follows that the density of such a star is more than that of a giant planet. That is, if Jupiter would became 80 times as heavy as it is, it would "collapse" until the temperature would reach 900K. So, in both cases gas pressure is a thing that defines radius and temperature... then what's a difference between such a gas planet and a star? I suppose, it would be solid core - does Jupiter have one? If no, it is star, not planet... Right?

Duh. I was one click away from my answer.

thanks for your replies.


I find all of this interesting.