What celestial object forms if fusion fails below the mass threshold required for true stars?
Answer
Brown dwarf
The necessary mass threshold is fundamental in classifying cosmic bodies. If a celestial object collapses under gravity but lacks the minimum mass—estimated around 13 times the mass of Jupiter—to generate the core temperature needed to sustain nuclear fusion, it fails to become a true star. Instead, it settles into the category known as a brown dwarf. A brown dwarf glows faintly, deriving its minimal illumination from residual heat leftover from its initial formation collapse, but it lacks the continuous, self-sustaining thermonuclear power source that defines an active star.
Related Questions
What is the defining mechanism causing a star to generate light and heat energy?What critical temperature must the core reach to force hydrogen nuclei to fuse?What celestial object forms if fusion fails below the mass threshold required for true stars?Which famous equation quantifies the mass converted into energy during stellar fusion?What type of high-energy photon initially results from fusion in the star's core?What are the three primary forms of energy emerging from the star's photosphere?What value represents the measured luminosity output of our Sun?How does the intensity of light received diminish as distance from a star increases?What are the two broad categories light reaching an observer in the universe can be divided into?What is the primary source dominating the energy striking Earth from non-terrestrial sources?What is the intrinsic energy output capability of a star fixed by, according to its observable properties?