* News and press releases
Missing brown dwarfs
Credit: AIP/2MASS
Artist’s impression of brown dwarfs
Credit: AIP/J. Fohlmeister
Star visiting the Solar system:
The new solar neighbour was originally discovered in 2014 at AIP using new data of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and astronomical archives of old photographic plates. It hides in the band of the Milky Way, which is overcrowded by many background stars. Typical of a cool red dwarf, it appears much brighter in infrared light. Despite its proximity, it moves rather slowly on the sky (in direction of the arrow). This was a first hint on a possible recent encounter with the sun.
Two new nearby brown dwarfs:
False-colour images of the two brown dwarf discoveries WISE J0254+0223 and WISE J1741+2553
Credit: AIP, NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive
Last update: 6. January 2025