Credit: J. Voss (AMNH)

These graphs show how the light from brown dwarfs are seen to vary over time. The infrared brightnesses were measured by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and demonstrate a wide range of variability in a large number of young brown dwarfs, indicative of their rotation and weather patterns.

Blue points represent the individual measurements while the pink line shows a calculated brightness curve fit to the data. These represent a selection of objects studied by Johanna Vos and her team which were presented at a AAS press conference on January 13th, 2022.