Key facts
- Category
- Stars
- Object class
- T-type brown dwarf star
- Composition
- Hydrogen, helium, and molecular clouds
- Scale fact
- ~152,000 kmdiameter
- Mass
- ~29 Jupiter masses
- Host
- Luhman 16 binary system
Luhman 16 B
~152,000 kmdiameter
Visual creditscaleofspace.org / CC BY-NC 4.0
Details
Luhman 16 B is the cooler T-type member of the nearest known brown-dwarf binary system. It is massive enough to glow from its own heat but too light to sustain ordinary hydrogen fusion, with patchy clouds that make its brightness change as it rotates.
Luhman 16 B is the cooler member of a brown-dwarf pair about six light-years away. With roughly 29 times Jupiter’s mass, it glows from retained heat but cannot sustain ordinary hydrogen fusion like a star.
Its brightness changes as it rotates. Time-resolved observations attribute those variations to evolving patches of cloud in its atmosphere, making this nearby brown dwarf a useful target for studying weather beyond the Solar System.
Links
- Editorial guides
- Universe journey
- Solar neighborhood
- Preset views
- Wikipedia
- Luhman 16 B on Wikipedia
Size neighbors
Objects near Luhman 16 B on the scale
On the logarithmic size axis, Luhman 16 B falls between Jupiter and Proxima Centauri. The band uses nearby Stars records.
Shared physical scale
1.82million km
Sources
References for Luhman 16 B
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- Luhman 16 B — Wikipedia
- Visual: scaleofspace.org / CC BY-NC 4.0
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About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.