Brown dwarfs are cool, dim objects that have a size between that of a gas giant and that of a Sun-like star.

Sometimes called failed stars, these objects are too small to sustain hydrogen fusion reactions at their cores, yet they have star-like attributes.

Typically, brown dwarfs have masses between 11-16 Jupiters (the approximate mass at which deuterium fusion can be sustained) and 75-80 Jupiters (the approximate mass to sustain hydrogen fusion).

“This is the first time we have found a brown dwarf by looking around a star that is being tugged across the sky,” said Dr. Timothy Brandt, a researcher in the Department of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“Finding a brown dwarf always involves luck, but this time we were able to stack the odds.”

Dr. Brandt and colleagues observed the HD 33632 system using powerful adaptive optics (AO) technology at Subaru Telescope’s state-of-the art exoplanet imaging system, SCExAO/CHARIS, and Keck Observatory’s advanced AO paired with its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRC2).

“These technologies remove the atmospheric blurring that distorts astronomical images, resulting in sharper images,” the astronomers said.