Astronomy ... A Star (x4)

Even more interesting than the diamond planet or the black hole sucking up a star that hit the news toyesterday is the 80°F "star" (brown dwarf, really).

This artist's conception illustrates what a "Y dwarf" might look like. Y dwarfs are the coldest star-like bodies known, with temperatures that can be even cooler than the human body. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 24 (UPI) -- NASA scientists say they've discovered the coldest class of star-like bodies, with temperatures as cool as that of the human body.

The discovery was made using the space agency's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, since the so-called Y dwarfs are nearly impossible to see when viewed with a visible-light telescope, a release by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said Tuesday.

The WISE infrared telescope was able to spot the faint glow of six Y dwarfs relatively close to the sun, within a distance of about 40 light-years.

"WISE scanned the entire sky for these and other objects, and was able to spot their feeble light with its highly sensitive infrared vision," said Jon Morse, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Y dwarfs are the coldest members of the brown dwarf family, often referred to as "failed" stars, having too little mass to fuse atoms at their cores and burn like the sun. Instead, astronomers say, they cool and fade with time until what little light they do emit is at infrared wavelengths.

One of the Y dwarfs, WISE 1828+2650, is the record holder for the coldest brown dwarf, with an estimated temperature of less than 80 degrees Fahrenheit, they said.