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Space

Astronomers have spotted what may be the smallest stars ever seen

The James Webb Space Telescope has found three objects about a thousand light years away that may be the least massive brown dwarf stars ever seen – though it is unclear how they formed

By Leah Crane

15 December 2023

Possibly the smallest stars ever discovered

Possibly the smallest stars ever discovered

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Kevin Luhman (PSU), Catarina Alves de Oliveira (ESA)

The border between what is a star and what is a planet is blurry, and new findings from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have made it even less clear. These objects appear to be brown dwarfs, commonly referred to as failed stars, but they are closer in size to giant planets – they may be the smallest stars ever spotted.

Kevin Luhman at the Pennsylvania State University and his colleagues spotted these three bodies in a star-forming cluster called IC 348, which is about…

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