Our exciting new results on TESS observations of the atmospheric dynamics of the closest brown dwarfs are out! Here is a link to the Astrophysical Journal paper that describes the findings.
Thanks to Mimmo Nardiello’s mastery of the TESS data, we could present an amazing rich lightcurve on the closest brown dwarf system to the Sun, the Luhman 16AB pair. The brightness of the pair is constantly changing; we could show that it is dominated by changes in Luhman 16B’s brightness. The changes are due to the rotation of the brown dwarf, which reveals different cloud pattern.
The unique feature of this data set is its length: we could analyze changes over a hundred rotation of Luhman 16B, which provided the yet-most-detailed look into the atmospheric circulation of brown dwarfs yet.
Check out this cool story by UA Science News write Mikayla Mace:
Striped or Spotted? Winds and Jet Streams Found on the Closest Brown Dwarf
I also put together a video to accompany the press release:
And here comes the video abstract of our results, intended for scientists:
Finally, if you would like to view the entirety of the amazing TESS lightcurve, check out this video: