Astronomers have discovered a "cool" brown dwarf circling a star relatively close to Earth.
Brown dwarfs are neither stars nor planets. They are typically dozens of times more massive than Jupiter, the most massive planet in our solar system, but too small to shine like a star.
The newly discovered brown dwarf orbits a small star located about 12.7 light years from the sun, making it the third closest brown dwarf to Earth yet found.
"This is really very much in our neighborhood of the galaxy," said Laird Close, an astronomer at the University of Arizona in Tucson, whose team made the find.
Close added that this is a rare "cool" brown dwarf. It has a temperature of about 1,382ºF (750ºC). Most brown dwarfs are much hotter, he said.
Two other brown dwarfs have been discovered orbiting a star about 11.8 light years away. Of the seven brown dwarfs discovered within 20 light years of the sun, five have companion stars, the researchers say.
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