News Astronomy Taking a census of brown dwarfs By Ron Cowen July 16, 2003 at 2:01 pm - More than 2 years ago Share this:Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print Using the Hubble Space Telescope, two teams have been in hot pursuit of some of the coolest objects in the universe. Infrared image of brown dwarfs and stars in the Trapezium cluster. NASA, Luhman, et al. Those objects, known as brown dwarfs, straddle a heavenly boundary: They’re too massive to be planets yet too scrawny to be stars.