images

Brown dwarf & debris ring from an oblique perspective

by

Walter B. Myers/Novapix

Reference

a-eto99-00107

Date

2009-02-10

A small, barren planet orbits obliquely to the plane of a massive set of concentric dust rings surrounding a brown dwarf of about 60 Jupiter masses. These rings are evocative of Saturn's famous rings of rock and ice, however there is likely no ice in the rings around this dwarf.
Recent observations have revealed that some brown dwarfs may be surrounded by rings of dust. While the origin of these rings, and the brown dwarfs themselves, is unclear, it's thought that material from these rings may even coalesce into planets, providing some brown dwarfs with their own solar systems.