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A brown dwarf was a stellar object that had characteristics of both a star and a gas giant.

In 2152 the Enterprise NX-01 was on course to investigate a brown dwarf planetary system when the ship was infested by a symbiotic lifeform and the investigation was interrupted. (ENT: "Vox Sola")

The Finibus system contained a brown dwarf, which in 2259 was in the process of being consumed by the system's black hole and was surrounded by a volatile gas cloud. In that year, the USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Christopher Pike, used the brown dwarf's thick atmosphere to hide from three Gorn hunters and a destroyer; one hunter was crushed by the atmospheric pressure while attempting to pursue the Enterprise toward the dwarf's center. (SNW: "Memento Mori")

According to Data in 2365, the abundance of dysprosium in a brown dwarf star was different than regular stars, when factored with terbium, holmium, erbium, and europium. (TNG: "Manhunt")

Finibus brown dwarf

A brown dwarf in the Finibus system

A brown dwarf, as described by the Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 108), was a "celestial object similar to a star, but with insufficient mass to generate a star's powerful nuclear reactions. Because a brown dwarf might glow with only feeble infrared light, it can be difficult to detect across interstellar distances."

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