We’re back with direct imaging with Masayuki Kuzuhara.
They used the #Subaru#telescope to observe nearby accelerating stars and search for substellar companions.
They discovered 4 substellar companions, one of which is the brown dwarf HIP 21152 B. The spectrum reveals water and methane. They further modelled the orbit, giving them a dynamical mass of around 28 Mjup.#ExSSV
Brains have the alpha waves, computers have their clocks... and radio telescopes have hydrogen masers (essentially, radio-wavelength lasers) to keep both accurate timing and frequency, which are essential for radio inteferometers such as ALMA to work.
This masers live at 5000 m high at the Chajnator plateau, so the work itself is challenging!