News Astronomy

Here’s how cool a star can be and still achieve lasting success

The motions of nearby stars reveal the boundary between red dwarfs and brown dwarfs

illustration of a brown dwarf

Brown dwarfs (one illustrated) glow dimly from the heat of their formation but have too little mass to sustain nuclear reactions.

JPL-Caltech/NASA

By Ken Croswell

- More than 2 years ago

If you want to be a successful star by making the minimum possible effort, aim for a surface temperature about a quarter of the sun’s.