For the first time ever, scientists have mapped out the surface of a brown dwarf, which could help them understand weather patterns in the solar system better, according to Space.com.
The map outlines the weather on the surface of WISE J104915.56-531906.1B (also known as Luhman 16B), which is the closest brown dwarf to Earth and 6.5 light-years away.
Researchers were able to map out the light and dark features of the "failed star's surface," according to officials at the European Southern Observatory.
"Our brown dwarf map helps bring us one step closer to the goal of understanding weather patterns in other solar systems," said Ian Crossfield from the Germany's Max Planck Institute, the lead author of the paper in Nature.
Click here to take a tour of the brown dwarf and its map.
Brown dwarfs are failed stars because they are bigger than gas giant planets like Jupiter, but still too small to be a legit star.
"Previous observations have inferred that brown dwarfs have mottled surfaces, but now we can start to directly map them," said Crossfield in a statement. "What we see is presumably patchy cloud cover, somewhat like we see on Jupiter."
Only around 100 brown dwarfs have been found by scientists, the first being discovered 20 years ago, according to the ESO.
Dr. Beth Biller, of the University of Edinburgh and the lead author of the study Astrophysical Journal Letters, said that researchers have been able to determine that brown dwarfs are "quite complex," and the previous studies are only the beginning.
"With new generations of telescopes, such as the forthcoming European Extremely Large Telescope, astronomers will likely see surface maps of more distant brown dwarfs, and eventually, surface maps for young giant planets," said Biller, according to ABC Science.
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