The reason we might not have detected Nemesis when we can find all these other brown dwarfs is twofold. First, we’re still nowhere near finding all the T dwarfs that are right in front of our eyes. Brown dwarfs are usually found by combing through data from all-sky surveys, but T dwarfs are very faint and their colors make them look like other objects (galaxies, stars, etc.), so finding them is very much “diving into the muck.” The other problem is that Nemesis, given its proximity and its orbit around the Sun, would be moving so quickly that it could feasibly have avoided detection in the all-sky surveys.

Oh, and try Oh, Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me Lovingly Tonight

So much so that it makes me rather skeptical its actually happenening. Granted the brown dwarf is quite massive with a hefty gravitational tug but from my undestanding an object at Pluto’s distance affecting something at Mercury’s so strongly just seems highly unlikely unless its a black hole or neutron star which it clearly ain’t!

Have they ruled out other closer-in planets or possible reasons for the exo-Saturn’s orbit? Are they sure?

There’s also a W class for Wolf-Rayet stars at the opposite end of the spectral class spectrum (try saying that five tuimes quicklyafter drinking afew shots of tequila! … ) which is sometimes included as type O.

Maybe the all-encompassing mennonic could be :

Whoa! Oh Be A Fine Girl Kiss Me Right Now – Sex Later Tonight?!

One point BA – I thought G type stars were 4 % of thestellar population not 10 %?

Got this from a Ken Croswell article on Alpha Centauri in Astronomy magazine (April 1991 issue) which had a pyramid graphically illustrating the breakdown of star type /numbers as follows :

70 % red dwarfs

10 % white dwarfs

15 % orange dwarfs

4% yellow dwarfs

1 % F class dwarfs & main-sequence white Sirian A type stars

and finally less than 1 % all other star types…

Now this was before the L & T type brown dwarfs were added so its a bit out of date but other than that – is it that wrong? Have we found that many more G-type stars since?? Has that idea been revised? Or did the BA (cough,cough, ahem) get it a trifle wrong? What _are_ the approximate relative percentages?

BA? Anyone?

O Be A Fine Girl Kiss Me Right Now Sweetie

Where does T fit in?

….. Thanks? right after sweetie

And to think, googling “stellar classification” seems to return no porn hits. That’s amazing in and of itself.

O Be A Fine Girl Kiss Me Right Now Sweetie

Where does T fit in?

What is more startling to me is the similarity of the flash pattern of the two major star images. The hexagonal shaped spikes are likely an effect of diffraction. Nevertheless, the specific pattern of brightness and the shape of the spiking is eerily similar. Not only the specific hex pattern, but the extra lumpiness at the top left, the contour on the lower right. It looks like you could cut out the bright central core of the right image along those contours and directly overlay them with the ones on the left. The midrange bright outer ring of spikes also appear similar, with some minor variations in shape that are subtle.

I would be curious to see other star close ups from Spitzer for comparison.

If we can find brown dwarfs 35 and 60 light years away, don’t you think we could find one in our own neighborhood (light days or less)?

All said and done, healthy skepticism is always good.

Sincere observation: the images really do look rotated to these layperson’s eyes. I’m not finding _any_ other correspondence between the two images to suggest otherwise.