Silicate precursor silane detected in cold low-metallicity brown dwarf.

Within 20 pc of the Sun, there are currently 29 known cold brown dwarfs-sources with measured distances and an estimated effective temperature between that of Jupiter (170 K) and approximately 500 K (ref. ). These sources are almost all isolated and are the closest laboratories we have for detailed atmospheric studies of giant planets formed outside the Solar System.

An infrared transient from a star engulfing a planet.

Planets with short orbital periods (roughly under 10 days) are common around stars like the Sun. Stars expand as they evolve and thus we expect their close planetary companions to be engulfed, possibly powering luminous mass ejections from the host star. However, this phase has never been directly observed.