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Brown Dwarf With Water Clouds Tentatively Detected Just 7 Light-Years From Earth

sciencehabit (1205606) writes Astronomers have found signs of water ice clouds on an object just 7.3 light-years from Earth — less than twice the distance of Alpha Centauri. If confirmed, the discovery is the first sighting of water clouds beyond our solar system. The clouds shroud a Jupiter-sized object known as a brown dwarf and should yield insight into the nature of cool giant planets orbiting other suns.

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  1. Re:Is this the missing "dark matter"? by mister_playboy · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, the amount of missing matter is far to great to be contained in such small objects even if they were incredibly numerous.

    Consider the entire mass of the asteroid belt is estimated to be only 4% of the Moon's mass, and the Moon's mass is only 1/81 of the Earth's.

    Dark matter, meanwhile, is thought to have a total mass more than 5 times greater than that of normal matter.

    --
    Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
  2. Re:Is this the missing "dark matter"? by joe_frisch · · Score: 4, Informative

    Its not a simple argument but if you look at:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...
    dark matter composed of bits of normal baryonic matter is not consistent with observations / simulations