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Science 11 December 1998:
Vol. 282. no. 5396, pp. 2063 - 2067
DOI: 10.1126/science.282.5396.2063
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Reports

The Dusty Atmosphere of the Brown Dwarf Gliese 229B

Caitlin A. Griffith, Roger V. Yelle, Mark S. Marley

The brown dwarf Gliese 229B has an observable atmosphere too warm to contain ice clouds like those on Jupiter and too cool to contain silicate clouds like those on low-mass stars. These unique conditions permit visibility to higher pressures than possible in cool stars or planets. Gliese 229B's 0.85- to 1.0-micrometer spectrum indicates particulates deep in the atmosphere (10 to 50 bars) having optical properties of neither ice nor silicates. Their reddish color suggests an organic composition characteristic of aerosols in planetary stratospheres. The particles' mass fraction (10-7) agrees with a photochemical origin caused by incident radiation from the primary star and suggests the occurrence of processes native to planetary stratospheres.

C. A. Griffith, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-6010, USA. R. V. Yelle, Center for Space Physics, Boston University, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA. M. S. Marley, Department of Astronomy, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003-0001, USA.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)