James Webb finds a brown dwarf.

For the first time in history, a team of astronomers has discovered methane emissions coming from a distant brown dwarf, as is known, although methane gas can be generated from non-biological processes when it is found in abundance there is the possibility that it is a biosignature, an indication of biological activity.

Scientists made the discovery in observations captured by the James Web Space Telescope, which is in its second year of scientific operations. They were surprised to see methane coming from such a cold planet, suggesting that this particular brown dwarf can generate auroras similar to the views on Earth Jupiter and Saturn.

The brown dwarf in question is W1935 and is located 47 light years from Earth, with a surface temperature of approximately -200 degrees. Researchers have not yet been able to determine its large mass precisely, but they estimate that it is 6 to 35 times the mass of Jupiter.

In a new article published in the magazine nature they explain how they observed several brown dwarfs before realizing that W1935 stood out from the others, methane gas is expected in giant planets and brown dwarfs but generally we see them absorbing light not shining, explained the lead author of the new paper in a press release, in addition They also made a surprising discovery in computer simulations that showed that the brown dwarf probably has a temperature inversion, this means that the warmer atmosphere at higher altitudes and colder near the ground, This normally occurs on planets that orbit close to their stars, but in this case the dwarf is isolated.

The researchers made comparisons with Jupiter and Saturn that present temperature inversions, the likely cause of this is the auroras, so the same may occur in W1935, however, unlike Jupiter, Saturn and Earth, it does not have a host star, this implies that the solar wind cannot create auroras in the same way as the brown dwarf.

In our solar system, however, moons contributed to the creation of auroras - Saturn's moon Enceladus, for example, expels water vapor from its geysers contributing to its auroras - scientists therefore speculated that this dwarf could having an unknown moon in its orbit, although follow-up observations are needed this could go a long way to explaining the unique characteristics of this intriguing brown dwarf.