Astronomers Create First Weather Map of Brown Dwarf Luhman 16B [VIDEO]

Astronomers have used a telescope to create the first weather map on the nearest brown dwarf.

Using the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, astronomers have created the first ever map of cloudy weather on the surface of Luhman 16B. They have made a chart of the dark and light features on Luhman 16B.

Officially called WISE J1044915.57-531906.1B, Luhman 16B is located 6.5 light years away from Earth making it one of the closest known brown dwarfs.

Brown dwarfs are referred to as failed stars because they are larger than planets like Jupiter and Saturn and lack the appropriate mass needed to trigger a nuclear fusion seen in a star. It was only twenty years ago that the first brown dwarf was discovered and currently only a few hundreds of these elusive cosmic objects are known.

Luhman 16AB is one of a pair that is located 6 light years away from Earth, lying in the constellation of Vela. Discovered in early 2013, this is the third closest system to the blue planet after Alpha Centauri and Barnard's Star.

Luhman 16A is the brighter one of the pair, while Luhman 16B is the fainter one. Astronomers have noticed that Luhman 16B changes its brightness every few hours as it rotates. This behaviour suggests that the brown dwarf could have marker surface features.

Using the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) the researchers mapped features of the surface of Luhman 16B. For this they used a cryogenic high-resolution infrared echelle spectrograph (CRIRES) instrument on VLT.

Ian Crossfield (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany), the lead author of the new paper explains, "Previous observations suggested that brown dwarfs might have mottled surfaces, but now we can actually map them. Soon, we will be able to watch cloud patterns form, evolve, and dissipate on this brown dwarf -- eventually, exometeorologists may be able to predict whether a visitor to Luhman 16B could expect clear or cloudy skies."

By mounting the instrument on VLT, the astronomers were able to detect the change in the brightness as the fainter component rotated. Apart from this, they were also able to see if the dark and the light features seen on the surface of Luhman 16B were moving towards or away from the observer.

Using these details and the Doppler imaging method they recreated a map highlighting the dark and light regions on the surface,

"In the future we will be able to watch cloud patterns form, evolve, and dissipate - eventually, maybe exo-meteorologists will be able to predict whether a visitor to Luhman 16B can expect clear or cloudy skies," said Crossfield.

The weather of the Brown Dwarf is unsuitable for humans. With temperature of about 1100C, the environment consists of minute droplets of molten iron and several minerals floating freely that mostly contain hydrogen.

Crossfield concluded saying, "Our brown dwarf map helps bring us one step closer to the goal of understanding weather patterns in other solar systems."

The findings were documented in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.