2026, October 17: NASA’s SPHEREx Telescope Sees Menagerie of Brown Dwarfs

October 17, 2026: Investigations by NASA’s SPHEREx Telescope studies brown dwarfs, bodies heated from within, but do not revolve around a host star.

by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:05 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 6:06 p.m. CDT.  Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times.

Brown dwarf
Untold numbers of brown dwarfs roam the cosmos, like the one in this artist’s concept. But only a few dozen have been studied in detail with space-based telescopes. With the help of NASA’s SPHEREx, scientists are in the process of analyzing thousands more. NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) space telescope is shedding light on brown dwarfs, celestial objects that blur the line between stars and exoplanets. New findings published in The Astrophysical Journal show that these dark and cloudy worlds have chemically rich atmospheres not unlike the giant planets in our own solar system. 

First discovered in the 1990s, brown dwarfs form from collapsing clouds of gas, like stars do, but they aren’t hefty enough to sustain hydrogen fusion in their cores. These dimly glowing balls of warm gas also share characteristics with Jupiter and Saturn. In contrast to most planets, however, brown dwarfs drift in darkness, ungoverned by a host star and heated entirely from within.

Read more here

I am still on a writing hiatus, but will return soon.  Otherwise, I am posting current astronomy and space news. – JLH

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