Planet or Failed Star? Hubble Photographs One of the Smallest Stellar Companions Ever Seen

FOR RELEASE: 1:00 pm (EDT) September 7, 2006

Donna Weaver/Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
(Phone: 410-338-4493/4514; E-mail: dweaver@xxxxxxxxx or
villard@xxxxxxxxx)

Kevin Luhman
Penn State University, University Park, Pa.
(Phone: 814-863-4957; E-mail: kluhman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)

Barbara K. Kennedy (PIO)
Penn State University, University Park, Pa.
(Phone: 814-863-4682; E-mail: science@xxxxxxx)


PRESS RELEASE NO.: STScI-PR06-31

PLANET OR FAILED STAR? NASA'S HUBBLE TELESCOPE PHOTOGRAPHS
ONE OF SMALLEST STELLAR COMPANIONS EVER SEEN

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have photographed one
of
the smallest objects ever seen around a normal star beyond our Sun.
Weighing in at 12 times the mass of Jupiter, the object is small enough

to be a planet. The conundrum is that it's also large enough to be a
brown dwarf, a failed star. The Hubble observation of the diminutive
companion to the low-mass red dwarf star CHXR 73 is a dramatic
reminder that astronomers do not have a consensus in deciding which
objects orbiting other stars are truly planets -- even though they
have at last agreed on how they will apply the definition of "planet"
to objects inside our solar system. The team's result will appear
in the Sept. 20 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

To see and read more about CHXR 73 on the Web, visit::
http://hubblesite.org/news/2006/31
http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Luhman9-2006.htm

The Hubble Space Telescope is an international cooperative project
between NASA and the European Space Agency. The Space Telescope
Science Institute is operated for NASA by the Association of
Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., Washington.

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