Radio waves are created by the interaction of electrons with a star's magnetic force, which sends magnetic loops out through hot plasma above the surface, says Arnold O. Benz of the University of Zurich's Institute of Astronomy. Writing in an accompanying analysis in Nature , Benz explains that these electrons follow a star's magnetic field lines down into the cooler surface, where they heat gases and generate X-rays. Researchers have measured how strong a star's radio emissions typically are in relation to its X-ray emissions. Benz said the discovery points to the possibility that brown dwarfs might emit radio waves via a completely different process than normal stars. This possibility further blurs the ill-defined boundaries between planets, brown dwarfs and real stars.
Stars burn deuterium and hydrogen, brown dwarfs only deuterium, planets nothing.
The new findings may indicate that the reality is more complex than we thought. The brown dwarf is about 500 million years old and has a mass about 60 times that of Jupiter, or 6 percent that of the Sun. A group of students on a National Science Foundation summer program at the Very Large Array near Socorro, New Mexico, decided to make the brown dwarf their project. Click here for more news and information about brown dwarfs and other deep-space objects.