Maria Rosa Zapatero Osorio is one of the leading scientists who discovered "Brown Dwarfs", there is still debate as to whether they should be defined as planets lacking a central star, or stars that don't emit their own light source.
She says: "If planets can only exist around a star, then our candidates are very low-mass brown dwarfs. But if planets must be a certain mass, then these objects are planets. This is only a problem of terminology, however," said Zapatero Osorio. "The most intriguing question now," she added, "is how can we explain the formation and evolution of planetary-mass objects outside the solar system?" |
