the cold cold sky

July 15, 2023 9:09 AM

"We have identified the coldest star ever found to produce radio waves – a brown dwarf too small to be a regular star and too massive to be a planet." Kovi Rose and Tara Murphy in The Conversation, on their discovery of a star "barely hotter than a pizza oven." From the NYT: "Break Out the S’mores: This Star Is Cooler Than a Campfire" (archive link).
posted by mittens (9 comments total)

Gonna need a really long stick for the marshmallows.
posted by notoriety public at 11:15 AM on July 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

"The T8 Dwarf WISE J062309.94045624.6, commonly known as WISE J0623, is around 37 light years away from Earth. In 2011, Caltech scientists first discovered it. The dwarf star's radius is 0.65 to 0.95 times Jupiter's, and its mass is unknown. It may be four to 44 times more massive than Jupiter per estimates."

At warp 5...5.7837837838 hours or is that days.
posted by clavdivs at 1:43 PM on July 15, 2023

This is amazing.
posted by doctornemo at 2:29 PM on July 15, 2023

Using the sun as an amplifier, I have sent the location of J0623 out into the cosmos.

The universe, after all, is a dark forest.
posted by kbanas at 2:39 PM on July 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

At warp 5...5.7837837838 hours or is that days.
[sniffles wetly, pushes up glasses]
Well actually, according to the warp speed scale as recalibrated for TNG, it's 63 days. (Earth to Vulcan takes about a month at TNG warp 5).
But if we're using the warp speed scale from the Original Series, it would take 108 days at warp 5 to get out there with a bag of marshmallows.
posted by bartleby at 2:49 PM on July 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

Found the dyson sphere.
posted by metametamind at 4:08 PM on July 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

They found Charn's sun. Amazing.
posted by jellywerker at 4:54 PM on July 15, 2023

I am absolutely fascinated by black and brown dwarf stars, the idea of a waning sun with the fires of fusion sputter fitfully producing nothing but a sort of sullen dim red glow in a body that has bands like a gas giant is just so damn cool!
posted by sotonohito at 6:13 AM on July 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

The Cosmic Savannah podcast discusses astrophysics in Africa. SKA, a joint South Africa-Australia radio observatory, is frequently mentioned. This discovery has been discussed yet, obviously.
posted by neuron at 6:19 PM on July 16, 2023 [1 favorite]