Concept information
Preferred term
T dwarfs
Definition
- A type of brown dwarf with an effective temperature between about 1200 K and 500 K, i.e. colder than the preceding type L dwarf. The spectra of T dwarfs are characterized by the presence of methane bands in the near infrared. The presence of these bands, broad H_{2}O features, and H_2 collision-induced absorption radically alter the spectral energy distributions of T dwarfs compared to a black body at the same temperature. Hence near-infrared colors become increasingly blue (J - K ~ 0) as compared to L dwarfs. The first T dwarf, called Gl 229B, was discovered by Nakajima et al. The spectral classification scheme (subtypes T0 to T9) currently used was defined by Burgasser et al. (en)
Broader concept
- Brown dwarfs (en)
- Dwarf stars (en)
- Late-type dwarf stars (en)
Entry terms
- T brown dwarfs (en)
- T dwarf stars (en)
- T-type brown dwarfs (en)
Editorial note
URI
http://astrothesaurus.org/uat/1679
{{label}}
{{#each values }} {{! loop through ConceptPropertyValue objects }}
{{#if prefLabel }}
{{/if}}
{{/each}}
{{#if notation }}{{ notation }} {{/if}}{{ prefLabel }}
{{#ifDifferentLabelLang lang }} ({{ lang }}){{/ifDifferentLabelLang}}
{{#if vocabName }}
{{ vocabName }}
{{/if}}