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> The planet, known as 2MASS J2126-8140, is between 12 and 15 times the mass of Jupiter. Wouldn't object on the higher end of this range be regarded as a brown
by aexaey 11y ago
> The planet, known as 2MASS J2126-8140, is between 12 and 15 times the mass of Jupiter.
Wouldn't object on the higher end of this range be regarded as a brown dwarf, making this system a binary star rather than a planet system?
- mapt 11y agoThe distinction is not a bright-line, and is not settled consensus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_dwarf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_dwarf
- slg 11y agoIt seems the more we learn about the object out there, the more varied they appear, and the clearer it becomes that our naming conventions are completely arbitrary.
- meric 11y agoBrown dwarfs are substellar objects[1] Perhaps if it doesn't make it as a star, then it's not binary? It's not quite a planet system, but maybe one can call it a "Solar system"? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_dwarf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_dwarf This might be interesting. In the same article, they call a pair of brown dwarves a "a binary system" rather than a binary star.