The smallest known star that astronomers have found is named
OGLE-TR-122b. Its radius is accurately measured at 167,000 km. That
makes it 20% larger than planet Jupiter but like most stars, it is
radiating energy in a way which indicates that nuclear fusion has been
underway for billions of years, presumably converting hydrogen into
helium like our sun, only less of it, and at longer wavelength, due to
the small size.
Yet today, without reference to the presence of any small star, the
science news is reporting a much larger dim object has been found, not a
star and more like a planet, which is 90 times more massive than
Jupiter. This object is not undergoing nuclear fusion. It is called SDSS
J0104+1535 and consists of more than 99.99% hydrogen and helium but
without nuclear ignition, despite the enormous gravity.
It is not clear that "high purity" is an actual parameter which
prohibits it from going nuclear, since it makes little sense that so
much hydrogen would not ignite, as happens in the much smaller star, due
to the Lawson criteria if nothing else. There is such a massive
disparity in the energy released from the smaller and hotter object,
compared to the much larger colder object- that great doubt is cast on
many assumptions relative to nuclear fusion at the cosmological scale.
Does LENR have a place in this picture?
The smaller, dirtier and much hotter object may be undergoing energetic
reactions which are not the same as fusion in our sun, for instance. If
it is less pure, then much of that impurity would be iron and nickel -
just like many meteorites. Notably these two metals are catalysts for LENR.
I would be willing to bet that not a single reputable astronomer will
bring up this possibility - that the smallest stars could be powered by
LENR instead of hot fusion, but can we rule out the possibility ? Is
there a better explanation for the strange picture which has been
presented above?
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