Luhman 16

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The Luhman 16 binary brown dwarf is the yellow disc at the center of this WISE image. The two individual stars are seen as one here.

Luhman 16 is a binary brown dwarf in the southern constellation Vela at 6.6 light-years from the Sun. It is also known as WISE 1049-5319.

These are the nearest known brown dwarfs to the Solar System, and the closest system discovered since Barnard's Star in 1916.[1][2]

The primary has a stellar classification of L8 ± 1, and the secondary is probably near the L/T transition. The pair orbit each other at a distance of about 3 AU with an orbital period of about 25 years.[1]

References[change | change source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Luhman K.L. 2013. Discovery of a binary brown dwarf at 2 parsecs from the Sun. Astrophysical Journal Letters, in press. [1]
  2. Kennedy, Barbara K. 2013. The closest star system found in a century. Penn State. [2]