Recently, we showed you a cool new direct image taken of a brown dwarf, an object midway in mass between a planet and a star. But that image doesn’t show the brown dwarf’s surface features. No existing image does. These objects are too far away – and too dim – to reveal themselves in that way. Now, though, a brown dwarf’s surface appearance has been revealed by researchers. The new study indicates bands and stripes in the atmosphere of Luhman 16B – one of two objects in the Luhman 16 binary brown dwarf system – the closest known brown dwarfs to Earth at only 6.5 light-years. Scientists said their new technique for revealing the stripes and bands on Luhman 16B will also be useful someday in mapping surface features on Earth-like planets in distant solar systems. Now that would be something to see!