The discovery of a giant planet 22,000 light years away may now help shine some light on this particularly knotty problem. This puts it right on the boundary between a planet and a type of “failed” star called a brown dwarf. Astronomers have a number of possible ways that they can decide whether something is a star or a planet. The most obvious is that a planet does not generate significant energy whereas a star does. At 13 Jupiter masses, this newly discovered objects sits right at the boundary between planet and brown dwarf.

Source: The Guardian November 10, 2017 14:15 UTC