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Science 6 November 1998:
Vol. 282. no. 5391, p. 1005
DOI: 10.1126/science.282.5391.1005b
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Since the discovery of the first bona fide brown dwarf, Gliese 229B, observers have searched for other candidate brown dwarfs to determine how they form and to characterize their mass and age. Tamura et al. (p. 1095) conducted two near-infrared wavelength surveys of the nearby (about 500 light years away) molecular clouds, Taurus and Chamaeleon, and found a dozen brown dwarf candidates. Some of these candidates had inferred masses as low as 0.012 solar masses, and some were also inferred to be as young as 1 million years old. Thus, the low mass and young age of these brown dwarf candidates suggest that these images captured brown dwarfs just after birth and that, like stars, brown dwarfs can form in molecular clouds.




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