Brown dwarfs are "failed" stars - worlds more massive than gas giant planets but not massive enough to begin nuclear fusion.
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We are children of the cosmos. Many of the materials that make up our bodies were once forged in stars.
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Perched on top of Mt. Hamilton, California, Lick Observatory has a magnificent view of the heavens. Leading-edge research is conducted here on a variety of astronomical subjects, including the study of extrasolar planets. Several of the planets known outside our solar system have been discovered at Lick.
SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is a joint program of NASA and the German Aerospace Center. It will be the largest airborne telescope in the world when operations begin in about 2010. The airplane is shown here with the type of astronomical objects it will study: the Milky Way, nebulae such as the Orion Nebula, star-forming regions, supernova, comets, planets, planetary disks, galaxies, and carbon-based molecules.