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Object Defies Categorization As Planet or Star

Posted by timothy on from the stella-incognito dept.

Kligat writes "The COROT project of the French Space Agency has detected an object described as defying categorization as a planet, star, or brown dwarf. Although only 0.8 times the radius of Jupiter, it is over 20 times as massive, giving it a density twice that of the metal platinum. If it is a star, it would be the smallest of those ever discovered."

1 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's a Dwarf! by Goobermunch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If it is, we're going to have to reevaluate the age of the universe.

    Theoretically speaking, it should take longer than the current estimated age of the universe for a star to go through the evolution to red giant to white dwarf to black dwarf.

    If it is a black dwarf, that'd be flipping cool.

    --AC