List of least massive stars
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This is a list of the least massive stars known. The list is ordered by solar mass and Jovian mass.
This list includes brown dwarfs and red dwarfs. The name of each brown dwarf has background color brown, and the names of and red dwarfs are against a background of red or orange, depending on whether they are cooler class M or warmer class M. (The objects are not actually these colors.)
Although brown dwarfs lack sufficient mass to ignite core hydrogen fusion (75-87 Jupiters, depending on metallicity), the smallest true stars (red dwarfs) can have such cool atmospheric temperatures (below 4,000 K), that it is difficult to distinguish them from brown dwarfs.
A star's mass cannot be lower than 13 Jupiter masses, because below this critical point the core does not get hot enough by gravitational pressure to start the fusion of deuterium, which requires at least a temperature of more than 1500 to 4000 K (depending on metallicity), in combination with a mass of about 7% that of our Sun. A brown dwarf therefore is heavier than a gas-giant planet, but not quite massive enough to be a star.
| Star name | Solar Mass | Jupiter Mass |
|---|---|---|
| Jupiter (as reference) | 0.00096 | 1 |
| ---------------- | ----- | -- |
| Cha 110913-773444 | 0.008 | 8 |
| OTS 44 | 0.013 | 15 |
| Oph1622 A | 0.014 | 15.5 |
| Oph1622 B | 0.016 | 17.5 |
| Gliese 229B | 0.021 | 25 |
| 2M1207 | 0.021 | 25 |
| Epsilon Indi BB | 0.024 | 28 |
| HD 98230B | 0.037 | 39 |
| Teide 1 | 0.041 | 43 |
| Epsilon Indi BA | 0.045 | 47 |
| Wolf 424B | 0.050 | 52 |
| Gliese 570D | 0.050 | 52 |
| Gliese 229A | 0.053 | 55 |
| LP 944-20 | 0.056 | 58 |
| 2MASS 0415-0935 | 0.060 | 63 |
| Wolf 424A | 0.060 | 63 |
| DENIS 1048-39 | 0.065 | 68 |
| 2MASS 1835+3259 | 0.070 | 75 |
| DENIS 0255-4700 | 0.070 | 75 |
| V1581 Cygni C | 0.074 | 79 |
| 2MASS 0532+8246 | 0.077 | 81 |
| LHS 3003 (GJ 3877) | 0.077 | 81 |
| Gliese 165B | 0.080 | 84 |
| Gliese 623B | 0.080 | 84 |
| LHS 1070B | 0.080 | 84 |
| LHS 1070C | 0.080 | 84 |
| Ross 614B | 0.080 | 84 |
| Teegarden's Star | 0.080 | 84 |
| Wolf 1055B | 0.080 | 84 |
| Gl 105C | 0.082 | 86 |
| LHS 292 | 0.083 | 87 |
| LP 731-58 | 0.083 | 87 |
| DX Cancri | 0.087 | 91 |
| Van Briesboeck 8 | 0.088 | 92 |
| AB Doradus C | 0.089 | 93 |
| OGLE-TR-122b | 0.091 | 96 |
| Wolf 359 | 0.1 | 105 |
| ---------------- | ----- | -- |
| Sun (as reference) | 1 | 1042 |
Note: The object Cha 110913-773444 is sometimes referred to as being the smallest Brown Dwarf, but its mass is too light for this (8 times Jupter's Mass). It is even smaller than some exoplanets known to us. Therefore it can better be seen as a so-called Sub-brown dwarf or a Planemo.
