Originally posted by OzWeatherman
Originally posted by tothetenthpower
BTW Brown Dwarfs DON"T have tails, so....
Brown dwarfs are also not able to be seen within the visual spectrum. They can only be detected via infrared....which obviously also means they cant be seen from earth
A) Infrared astronomy can be performed from earth's surface, 2MASS did it all the time
B) Brown dwarf stars can be detected in visible light, though they're dim.
This is a red light filtered image of the brown dwarf 2MASS J16452211-1319516 39 light years away. It's in the center of the image. It's dim, but certainly detectable, even from 39 light years.
archive.stsci.edu...
Here's the same brown dwarf seen in IR light at a different date:
archive.stsci.edu...
It's much brighter in this image and also has moved slightly due to its high proper motion.
