03 February, 1998. Brown dwarfs definitely seem to exist. In
addition to the cool body Gliese 229 B (which has a temperature of
only 1100 Kelvins and a mass clearly well under the brown dwarf
limit of only 0.08 solar masses), several dim candidates have been
found in the Pleiades cluster. Planets form from the accumulation
of dusty debris within a circumstellar nebula, whereas brown dwarfs
form whole from the dusty gas of interstellar space. Another
distinction between brown dwarfs and planets is that above 0.13
times the mass of Jupiter, bodies become hot enough to fuse their
natural deuterium. Some 10 bodies between this limit and 0.08
solar masses have been found from Doppler studies to be orbiting
other stars. However, it is not know if planets can grow to this
mass.