Coldest Star Found—No Hotter Than Fresh Coffee

[n2doc]

An artist's impression of the brown dwarf CFBDSIR 1458 10b (right) and its binary companion.

Illustration courtesy L. Calçada, ESO

Andrew Fazekas
for National Geographic News
Published March 23, 2011

Dubbed CFBDSIR 1458 10b, the star is what's called a brown dwarf. These oddball objects are often called failed stars, because they have starlike heat and chemical properties but don't have enough mass for the crush of gravity to ignite nuclear fusion at their cores.

With surface temperatures hovering around 206 degrees F (97 degrees C), the newfound star is the coldest brown dwarf seen to date. (Related: "Dimmest Stars in Universe Spotted?")

"Over the years there has been steady but slow progress in pushing the boundaries of finding the coldest stars," said study leader Michael Liu, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii.

"But with this latest discovery we have made a big leap forward—besting the previous record holder by at least 150 Kelvin <270 degrees F, or 150 degrees C>," he said.

more

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110323-coldest-star-discovered-cup-coffee-brown-dwarf-hawaii-space-science/

[tblue37]

1. I wouldn't want to spill it on my lap! nt

[no limit]

2. It's amazing that they can see something like that.

with a temperature that low I assume it's extremely dim.

[RufusTFirefly]

3. Is it just one star? Or a double-double?

Sorry. Canadian joke.

[angstlessk]

4. Is it really he dimmest or just the dimmest we can see?

I would have never thought a sun could be that cool...in both contexts!

[Confusious]

6. Brown dwarfs are in a classification of their own

Not really suns, more like super huge Jupiters. Jupiter actually gives out more power then it takes in from the sun.

[angstlessk]

7. Ya know, I am AMAZED what people on DU know..

I wonder how many gigabytes the knowledge on DU would need....of course we know a gigabyte gigabyte more than freerepublic!

[dimbear]

10. Exactly. Jupiter is in some sense a star, but its energy source isn't

completely understood.

[damntexdem]

5. But what's its caffeine content?

And do you want it with cream and sugar?

;-)

[jimlup]

8. Cool, I mean... yeah, that's exactly what I mean

:)

[Systematic Chaos]

9. And at the bottom of the article, they discuss an even cooler one...

...with an estimated temperature of 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

My bedroom gets hotter than that in the summer. :(