Free Astronomy Magazine January-February 2026

4 ASTRO PUBLISHING JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2026 A n international team of as- tronomers using the com- bined powers of space-based and ground-based observatories, in- cluding the W. M. Keck Observatory and Subaru Telescope on Maunakea, Hawai ‘ i Island, have discovered a brown dwarf companion orbiting a nearby red dwarf star, providing key insight into how stars and planets form. Located about 55 light-years from Earth, the brown dwarf com- New insight into stellar and planetary formation by Keck Observatory Meagan O’Shea panion named J1446B, was discov- ered orbiting the nearby M dwarf J1446. Too heavy to be a planet but too light to be a normal star, J1446B has a mass of about 60 times that of Jupiter and orbits its host star at a distance roughly 4.3 times the Earth– Sun separation, completing one or- bit in about 20 years. Remarkably, near-infrared observa- tions revealed brightness variations of about 30%, suggesting dynamic