Why are brown dwarfs sometimes considered to be "failed stars?"
Group of answer choices
They do not fuse hydrogen into helium in their cores
They can only be seen in the infrared (i.e., with the James Webb Space Telescope)
They are only about as big as Jupiter
They are too cold at their surfaces to be considered stars
The correct answer is: They do not fuse hydrogen into helium in their cores.
Brown dwarfs are often considered "failed stars" because they do not have enough mass to sustain nuclear fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium, which is the process that powers stars. Brown dwarfs are sometimes referred to as "sub-stellar objects" because they have characteristics of both stars and gas giant planets like Jupiter. While they do emit some light and heat, they are not as hot or bright as stars, and they primarily emit radiation in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Additionally, brown dwarfs are generally smaller in size compared to regular stars but larger than gas giant planets.