00:03What's the difference between a planet and a star?
00:05Well, a recently discovered cosmic object named WD0032-317b is certainly making that
00:12distinction more difficult.
00:14Astronomers say the object is a brown dwarf, or something that is pretty much a planet,
00:18but hot enough to be a star.
00:19In fact, experts say surface temperatures on this brown dwarf would be around 13,940
00:25degrees Fahrenheit.
00:25For any amateur star experts out there, that means it's significantly hotter than the
00:30sun, which has surface temperatures upwards of 9,940 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning it's
00:36also the hottest object of its kind ever found.
00:38As brown dwarfs don't have their own heat-producing fusion reactions, they tend to simply be heated
00:43by their host star.
00:44So what gives?
00:45Experts say this newly discovered brown dwarf orbits another star extremely closely, revealing
00:50what can happen when this situation occurs.
00:52Theoretically, this can cause what's called thermal dissociation to take place, a process
00:56marked by tons of ultraviolet light causing the atmosphere to evaporate.
01:00The object can then be ripped to pieces at a molecular level because of the extreme temperatures,
01:05which experts say means this brown dwarf is an excellent candidate for study, showing us
01:09that's exactly what happens when stars essentially evaporate entire planets.
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