Lauren Wehlage Professor Young Astronomy Science in the news 9 NASA's Spitzer and WIS !

elescopes "ind #lose$ #old Neigh%or of Sun April &'$ &()*

NASAs (WISE) and spitzer space telescope have discovered what appears to be the coldest brown dwarf known a di!" star like bod# that s$rprisin%l# is as frost# as Earth&s North 'ole( )he i!a%es fro! space telescopes have pinpointed the ob*ects distance to +(, li%ht #ears awa#" earnin% it the title for fo$rth closest s#ste! to o$r s$n( )he closest s#ste!" a trio of stars" is Alpha -enta$ri" at abo$t . li%ht #ears awa#( /rown dwarfs start their lives like stars" as collapsin% balls of %as" b$t the# lack the !ass to b$rn n$clear f$el and radiate starli%ht( WISE was able to spot the rare ob*ect beca$se it s$rve#ed the entire sk# twice in infrared li%ht" observin% so!e areas $p to three ti!es( cool ob*ects like brown dwarfs can be invisible when viewed b# visible li%ht telescopes b$t their ther!al %low stands o$t in infrared li%ht( I find this to be appealin% beca$se" it blows !# !ind to think abo$t space( 0ow !an# planets" and stars" and all the stard$st" we have( I cant even ph#sicall# i!a%ine all of these thin%s( 1ostl# beca$se I havent seen the! with !# own e#es( So the fact that NASA post these thin%s so that I can view the! and pict$re the!" it&s helpf$l(