Coolest stars come out of the dark: Spitzer spies frigid brown dwarfs
Sunday, July 4, 2010 - 06:14
in Astronomy & Space
Astronomers have uncovered what appear to be 14 of the coldest stars known in our universe. These failed stars, called brown dwarfs, are so cold and faint that they'd be impossible to see with current visible-light telescopes. Spitzer's infrared vision was able to pick out their feeble glow, much as a firefighter uses infrared goggles to find hot spots buried underneath a dark forest floor.