Star Smaller Than Some Planets Found

Abhishek writes "Astronomers have found the tiniest full-fledged star known, an object just 16 percent bigger than Jupiter. It is smaller than some known planets that orbit other stars. The star is a companion to a Sun-like star toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. It was found and measured by observing changes in the light output of the system when the smaller star passes in front of the larger star from our vantagepoint. This would give a better idea of brown dwarfs or failed stars. The star has been named OGLE-TR-122b. This discovery also marks the possibility of stars that look strikingly like planets."

Comments

Interesting...

[Ianoo]

I've read in other places that there needs to be a critical mass for a big cloud of hydrogen to begin fusion, otherwise it ends up as something like Jupiter. What might be the reason for this star burning when other similarly sized objects do not? Gravitational effects from the companion star imparting extra energy? Any physicists care to speculate?

Aren't neutron stars "stars"?

[turnstyle]

Aren't neutron stars "stars"? And aren't they smaller than planets?

Stars "looking" like planets ?

[Dozix007]

I think it should be noted that the way we look at stars and planets could never really lead to that mistake. Radiation emitted by a stellar body is analyzed and it is then determined "what" the stellar body is. It is impossible to misinterpret an extremely hot stellar body with a relatively cool planet.