abstract:Brown dwarfs are substellar objects too low in mass to sustain hydrogen-1 fusion reactions in their cores, unlike main-sequence stars, which can. They occupy the mass range between the heaviest gas giants and the lightest stars, with an upper limit around 75 to 80 Jupiter masses (MJ).
If the new object were a captured alien, it could give astronomers their first good look at an extra-solar planet, or a browndwarf if that is what it turns out to be.