Astronomers Discover Third-Closest Star System To Earth

The Bad Astronomer writes "Astronomers have found the third-closest star system to the Earth: called WISE 1049-5319, it's a binary brown dwarf system just 6.5 light years away. Brown dwarfs are faint, low mass objects 13 — 75 times the mass of Jupiter, and are so dim they are very difficult to detect. These newly-found nearby objects were seen in observations from 1978 but went unnoticed at the time, but since that date the large apparent motion of the binary made their proximity obvious. Only two star systems are closer: Alpha Centauri (4.3 light years) and Barnard's star (6 light years)."

Comments

These are the starts that are closest to me

[Anonymous Coward]

Sheldon's going to have to fix his song.

Re:These are the starts that are closest to me

[Dr. Sheldon Cooper]

I most certainly shall not. I don't consider a brown dwarf to be a real star. I generally don't spend time considering topics related to astronomy at all, as it is widely known that astronomy is a field for children or H1B imports with selective mutism and a penchant for broadway musicals.

To put it in terms you would be more likely to understand, if stars were thespians, a brown dwarf would be on par with Jean Claude Van Damme.

And before you ask, a thespian is what you normies call an actor.

Re:Proxima Centauri

[skade88]

Mod this up or edit the wiki article so Proxima Centauri is 14 light years away...

Re:If brown dwarfs can't sustain fusion

[Jhon]

I say we kick Pluto out of the solar system since it's not a REAL planet. Let it spend the rest of it's life around a fake star!

Effing dwarfs.

Re:If brown dwarfs can't sustain fusion

[skade88]

Dwarf planets and stars are sensitive and preferred it if you called them little planets and little stars.

Re:If brown dwarfs can't sustain fusion

[OolimPhon]

Nope, Plutonium is okay. It's named after some cartoon dog.

Re:Third closest system?

[Anonymous Coward]

Debug your code. The index starts at zero.