Strange Brown Dwarfs Star in 'Cosmic Orphans' Webcast Tonight: Watch Live

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By Tariq Malik
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An artist's conception of a free-floating brown dwarf, or failed star.
An artist's conception of a free-floating brown dwarf, or failed star. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Dupuy's research at CfA is specifically aimed understanding how brown dwarfs form and evolve over time. His talk tonight, entitled "Cosmic Orphans," is the first of CfA's Observatory Nights talks for 2014.

Brown dwarfs are commonly referred to as failed stars because they appear to have many attributes of actual stars, but never sparked to life with nuclear fusion. They can range between 13 and 90 times the mass of Jupiter, and reach about one-tenth the mass of the sun.

Earlier this month, scientists using NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope found that violent storms of molten iron rain can occur on brown dwarfs.  

If you miss CfA's live broadcast on brown dwarfs tonight, the  Observatory Night talk will be posted to the center's YouTube channel next week: http://www.youtube.com/user/cfapress

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.