Extrasolar Moon - Definition of Satellites Around Brown Dwarfs

Definition of Satellites Around Brown Dwarfs

While traditional usage implies moons orbit a planet, the discovery of planet-sized satellites around brown dwarfs blurs the distinction between planets and moons, due to the low mass of such failed stars. To resolve this confusion, the International Astronomical Union declared, "Objects with true masses below the limiting mass for thermonuclear fusion of deuterium, that orbit stars or stellar remnants, are planets."

Read more about this topic:  Extrasolar Moon

Famous quotes containing the words definition of, definition, satellites, brown and/or dwarfs:

    One definition of man is “an intelligence served by organs.”
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    ... we all know the wag’s definition of a philanthropist: a man whose charity increases directly as the square of the distance.
    George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)

    To the Japanese, Portugal and Russia are neutral enemies, England and America are belligerent enemies, and Germany and her satellites are friendly enemies. They draw very fine distinctions.
    Jerome Cady, U.S. screenwriter, and Lewis Milestone. Peter Voroshevski (Howard Clinton?)

    Unreal City,
    Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
    A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
    I had not thought death had undone so many.
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)

    Time is indeed the theatre and seat of illusion: nothing is so ductile and elastic. The mind stretches an hour to a century and dwarfs an age to an hour.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)