Do Brown Dwarfs have a cosmic speed limit? Astronomers dissect the science behind it

The Milky Way is home to billions of brown dwarfs that are known for spinning at an awfully rapid rate. They are capable of spinning as fast as 300,000 kilometres per hour with the fastest of them all taking just over an hour to complete one rotation. Although it's amusing to learn about a piece of news like this, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) disagrees and states that it is actually bad news. Here's everything you need to know about the 'failed stars'.

The science behind the speed of Brown Dwarfs - Will they die?

According to a study published in Astronomical Journal by NASA, brown dwarfs spinning at a supersonic speed, each at a different pace could mean that they would eventually break apart. For those who are not aware of the nature of the brown dwarfs, these substellar objects start spinning from the day they are born and only speed up further as they cool down and contract. This fundamentally means that the faster they spin, the more they're ageing and moving closer to death.

However, after further study, NASA found out that the three fastest-moving brown dwarfs, namely T7, L3.5 and L8, each spinning at 1.08 hours, 1.14 hours and 1.23 hours respectively, aren't of the same age, appearance or development stage. While T7 is a warm planet, L3.5 is cold and L8 is somewhere in between. This implies that the previously theorised study of dwarfs speeding up as they inch closer to death may not apply to them. NASA, as a result, explains that the reason might be that they're subject to a speed limit.

In our own solar system, planet Saturn is also getting succumbed to the state of the brown dwarfs, as it is completing a rotation every 10.2 hours at the moment. This is especially scary because the planet is moving almost at the same speed as Jupiter despite being 0.3 times its mass. After a point, it's likely to start bulging around from its midpoint and eventually succumb to the pressure. This process is known as an oblation, something that Saturn is already showing major signs of. However, NASA doesn't seem to worry as they believe that it won't self-destruct just yet. They're still looking into the reason behind why certain cosmic objects don't die despite their speed and are researching the braking mechanism that is stopping it.

Image Source: NASA JPL