They're calling it 'The Accident.'
In some ways, The Accident — which sports the amazingly dry scientific name of WISEA J153429.75-104303.3 — matches the dim, burning-out spectrum of a typical brown dwarf. But it burns brighter in other wavelengths, setting it apart.
"This object defied all our expectations," lead study author and Caltech astrophysicist Davy Kirkpatrick said in the release.That seemingly contradictory data — suggesting that The Accident is both unusually hot and cold — ultimately paints a picture of a celestial body that's twice as old as the typical brown dwarf and that, therefore, formed when the galaxy had a very different chemical composition.
"It’s not a surprise to find a brown dwarf this old, but it is a surprise to find one in our backyard," study coauthor and Caltech astrophysicist Federico Marocco said in the release. "We expected that brown dwarfs this old exist, but we also expected them to be incredibly rare. The chance of finding one so close to the solar system could be a lucky coincidence, or it tells us that they’re more common than we thought.
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