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Rogue Brown Dwarf Lurks In Our Cosmic Neighborhood
astroengine writes "The UK Infrared Telescope in Hawaii has discovered a lone, cool brown dwarf called UGPSJ0722-05. As far as sub-stellar objects go, this is a strange one. For starters, it's the coolest brown dwarf ever discovered (and astronomers using the UKIRT should know; they are making a habit of finding cool brown dwarfs). Secondly, it's close. In fact, it's the closest brown dwarf to Earth, at a distance of only 10 light years. And thirdly, it has an odd spectroscopic signature, leading astronomers to think that this might be the discovery of a whole new class of brown dwarf."
This chart http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/nearest.html lists the closest objects to earth. The brown dwarf (being a failed brown dwarf and found recently...howzabout calling it FAIL) is about the 12th closest object to our solar system.
Project Orion is the only one I have ever heard of that claims such speeds.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
It's not a star . Brown dwarfs generate enough heat at their cores to maintain convection between the core and the surface, which keeps elements from differentiating (separating out), but they don't have enough mass to sustain fusion, which is required to be considered a star.