solar neighbourhood
catdynamics | March 11, 2013I think we should take some pie over, in person.
Discovery of a Binary Brown Dwarf at 2 Parsecs from the Sun - Kevin Luhman, ApJLetters in press.
That is just over 6 light years away, making it the third closest system from the Sun, and the closest known substellar system, only the α Cen triple system, and Barnard's Star, an old red dwarf, are closer.
Detection images for our new neighbour. The WISE discovery image is middle bottom, the Gemini image at the bottom right shows the resolved pair clearly.
This is a spectacular and somewhat surprising discovery, that something could be this…