Clouds on brown dwarfs move in mysterious ways

[Judi Lynn]

International Business Times
18 AUG 2017 AT 07:51 ET

August 17, 2017
Elana Glowatz
Posted with permission from International Business Times

Brown dwarfs might have stripes of clouds moving at different speeds and directions in their atmospheres, according to a new model that tries to explain the weather on these mysterious bodies that are bigger than planets but smaller than stars.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said waves of atmosphere could be causing particles to move above the surface of a brown dwarf, which in turn changes the thickness of its clouds, made of minerals called silicates and specks of iron. The clouds are separated into bands at different latitudes, and those bands circulate at different speeds from one another.

Waves in the atmosphere are kind of like waves in the ocean. NASA explained that in Earth’s atmosphere there are waves that send cold air from areas close to the poles toward the middle latitudes, and that can create or extinguish clouds.

On brown dwarfs, the waves up there would have different lengths, which would account for them making the clouds move at different paces.

More:
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/08/clouds-on-brown-dwarfs-move-in-mysterious-ways/