NASA’s Spitzer and WISE telescopes find star colder than the North Pole

We tend to think of stars as being very, very hot, but what about a star that you could use as a deep freeze? Astronomers using NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered a dim star-like object with the catchy title WISE J085510.83-071442.5.0 that is colder than the North Pole. Lying about 7.2 light years from Earth, it is not only the coldest brown dwarf on record, but the fourth-closest star system to the Solar System.

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Would a Brown Dwarf be a candidate to support life ?

Thomo said:

Would a Brown Dwarf be a candidate to support life ?

I think the constraints for life on a brown dwarf would be

gravity
temperature
lack of water
lack of elements
hostile atmosphere
high atmospheric pressure
lack of atmosphere
lack of magnetic field
too much of certain elements
proximity of other stars
type of stars
proximity of other objects like black holes,
proximity of dark matter
too much dust in space

What other constraints would the universe put on life?

CrazyNeutrino said:

NASA’s Spitzer and WISE telescopes find star colder than the North Pole

We tend to think of stars as being very, very hot, but what about a star that you could use as a deep freeze? Astronomers using NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered a dim star-like object with the catchy title WISE J085510.83-071442.5.0 that is colder than the North Pole. Lying about 7.2 light years from Earth, it is not only the coldest brown dwarf on record, but the fourth-closest star system to the Solar System.

more…

This is brilliant, but is it one I already know about? No it isn’t, it’s a new one. There’s one brown dwarf star system even closer, the THIRD-closest star system to the Solar System is “a dim star-like object with the catchy title” WISE J104915.57-531906.
See Nearest stars

> Would a Brown Dwarf be a candidate to support life ?

Not hot brown dwarfs, but for cool “Y” class brown dwarfs like this new one it’s difficult to rule out the possibility of microbial life forms supported in droplets within the convecting atmosphere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_(hypothetical_star)

We tend to think of stars as being very, very hot, but what about a star that you could use as a deep freeze? Astronomers using NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered a dim star-like object with the catchy title WISE J085510.83-071442.5.0 that is colder than the North Pole. Lying about 7.2 light years from Earth, it is not only the coldest brown dwarf on record, but the fourth-closest star system to the Solar System.