Brown Dwarf GJ 504 B. This image of the low-mass brown dwarf GJ 504 B was taken by Bowler and his team using adaptive optics with the NIRC2 camera at Keck Observatory in Hawaii. The image has been processed to remove light from the host star (whose position is marked with an "x"). The companion is located at a separation of about 40 times the Earth-Sun distance and has an orbital period of about 240 years. By returning to this and other systems year after year, the team is able to slowly trace out part of the companion's orbit to constrain its shape, which provides clues about its formation and history. (Credit: Brendan Bowler (UT-Austin)/W. M. Keck Observatory)
A team of astronomers has used the Keck and Subaru telescopes on Maunakea to gain new insight into the processes of star and planet formation. They observed 27 star systems with planet-scale objects in orbit around them, by using specialized techniques to separate the light from the parent star and the much-dimmer orbiting objects. Some of the orbiters were giant exoplanets, while others were from a fascinating class of objects known as “brown dwarfs”. These are more substantial than gas-giant planets, but still not massive enough to ignite nuclear fusion in their cores in the way stars do. This earns them the nickname “failed stars”. By figuring out the shapes of the orbits, the team determined that in contrast to the giant planets that formed in a disc of gas and dust rotating around the parent star, brown dwarfs in these systems formed just like their parent stars, from a collapsing clump of gas and dust.
Learn more about the Subaru Telescope study here and the Keck Observatory study here.