An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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The observational result indicating a deficit in the frequency of → brown dwarf companions to Sun-like stars, either relative to the frequency of less massive planetary companions or relative to the frequency of more massive stellar companions. However, this desert exists mainly for low-separation brown dwarfs detected using orbital velocity surveys. No brown dwarf desert is noticed at wide separations (J. E. Gizis et al. 2001, ApJ 551, L163).

→ brown; → dwarf; → desert.

1) An arid land where average annual precipitation is so low (usually taken as below 250 mm mean annual rainfall) that it will not adequately support vegetation, and where the potential rate of evaporation far exceeds precipitation.
2) Any place lacking in something; → brown dwarf desert.

From M.E., from O.Fr. desert, from L.L. desertum, literally "thing abandoned," from deserere "to abandon."

Kavir "salt and sour ground, where nothing grows; wilderness," of unknown origin.