November 2023, in a groundbreaking discovery, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has identified the smallest known brown dwarfs—often called “failed stars”—within the IC 348 star cluster, about 1,000 light-years away. The findings, published in The Astronomical Journal (December 2023), were led by astronomers Kevin Luhman (Penn State University) and Catarina Alves de Oliveira (European Space Agency).

These record-breaking objects weigh just 3 to 4 times Jupiter’s mass, making them the tiniest free-floating brown dwarfs ever detected. Unlike planets, they formed like stars from collapsing gas clouds but lack the mass to ignite nuclear fusion. JWST’s infrared capabilities were crucial in spotting these extremely faint, cool objects.

“This discovery challenges our understanding of star formation,” said Luhman. “We didn’t expect objects this small to form like stars, yet here they are.” The team suggests such tiny brown dwarfs may be more common than previously believed, raising new questions about the boundary between stars and planets.

Future JWST observations could reveal whether even smaller “rogue” objects exist, blurring the line between star and planet even further.