Tag Archives: y dwarfs

A Half-Billion Stars And Galaxies From NASA’s WISE Mission Revealed — Many For First Time

By Guest PostMarch 17, 2012Scienceall sky catalog, asteroids, atlas, catalog, comets, cosmos, david saxon, distant galaxies, echo, edward l wright, exploded star, galaxies, goggles, great sky, infrared detectors, infrared sky, infrared wavelength, jet propulsion laboratory, jupiter, light, mars, mission, NASA, planet, principal investigator, roc cutri, saturn, stars, supernova explosion, wise, y dwarfs

A new atlas and catalog of the entire infrared sky with more than a half-billion stars, galaxies and other objects captured by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission was unveiled by NASA Wednesday.

“Today WISE delivers the fruit of 14 years of effort to the astronomical community,” said Edward L. (Ned) Wright, a UCLA professor of physics and astronomy and the mission’s principal investigator, who began working on the mission in 1998. (more…)

NASA’s Wise Mission Discovers Coolest Class of Stars

By Guest PostAugust 25, 2011Science40 light years, ammonia, astronomers, atmospheric temperature, brown dwarf family, california institute of technology, Chile, coldest brown dwarf, cool as the human body, davy kirkpatrick, failed stars, gas giant planets, hawaii, infrared processing and analysis center, infrared vision, jon morse, jupiter, magellan telescopes at las campanas observatory, methane, michael cushing, molecular signatures, NASA, nasa headquarters, nine light years away, palomar observatory, parent star, pasadena, proxima centauri, ross 154, solar system, spitzer space telescope, star like bodies, visible light telescope, w m keck observatory atop mauna kea, Washington, water, wide field infrared survey explorer, wise, wise 1541-2250, wise 1828+2650, y dwarfs

PASADENA, Calif. – Scientists using data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have discovered the coldest class of star-like bodies, with temperatures as cool as the human body.

Astronomers hunted these dark orbs, termed Y dwarfs, for more than a decade without success. When viewed with a visible-light telescope, they are nearly impossible to see. WISE’s infrared vision allowed the telescope to finally spot the faint glow of six Y dwarfs relatively close to our sun, within a distance of about 40 light-years. (more…)