Well, the problem with brown dwarfs is that they are just barely stars. They aren't massive enough to start the Bethe cycle, so they can only fuse deuterium and lithium which are a lot less abundant and don't release nearly the energy that p-p fusion does.
Estimates for the "lifetime" of a brown dwarf are in the millions of years, not billions. Which is why Whereisit is of interest. It *might* be as much as a billion years old. so how does it already have life?
And since brown dwarfs are cooling from day one, the life zone is steadily shrinking.
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dancing_serpent
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2020-01-22 04:29 pm (UTC)Estimates for the "lifetime" of a brown dwarf are in the millions of years, not billions. Which is why Whereisit is of interest. It *might* be as much as a billion years old. so how does it already have life?
And since brown dwarfs are cooling from day one, the life zone is steadily shrinking.