WISE

WISE (Wide field Infrared Survey Explorer) was designed to identify stars closest to the Sun
and could pick up the glow of the coolest ‘failed’ stars, known as brown
dwarfs. These sub-stellar objects range between 13 to 90 Jupiter masses and
have been observed with ground-based telescopes since 1994. WISE might be able
to track down brown dwarfs in our neighbourhood, even those possibly closer
than the nearest known star Proxima Centauri, which is four light years away.
WISE’s first complete survey of solitary brown dwarfs might explain whether
these failed dim stars might account for orbital anomalies in the extreme outer
solar system or disturb the Oort cloud, a spherical cloud of cometary bodies at
one light year distance around our Sun. interesting!!!

Can't wait 'til WISE find some more brown dwarfs and hopefully another Sol planet if it exists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide-field_Infrared_Survey_Explorer

Interesting to see how many BDs exist in the solar neighborhood. Some estimates say the expected number of L and T stars is roughly equal to M stars. About a 50-50 chance they find a BD closer than Proxima Centauri.

Apparently there are some delays launching WISE, caused by problems with launching a military satellite.

(maybe we should merge in this thread?)

Lazarus wrote:

(maybe we should merge in this thread?)

Sounds reasonable. Done.

What can WISE do for exoplanet studies? Detect rogue planemos?

About to launch.

Apparently a successful launch.

WISE is checking out nicely and is about to pop its 'lens cap'. After the initial one month checkout, first pictures will be released about a month later. I'd guess late Feb 2010.

WISE site for news, etc.

http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/news.html

WISE first ligth
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/multimedia/wise20100106.html

WISE first light. Lots of red (cool) objects visible when zoomed in.
http://www.planetary.org/image/PIA12499.jpg

I'm guessing a lot of these are the hordes of red dwarfs that populate the galaxy.

That red spot at the centre of that image is a near-Earth asteroid.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/multimedia/wise20100122.html

In general, there is a non-zero probability that Lyra1 closer Proxima Centauri ...

WISE has found ~100 new brown dwarfs. Six are claimed to be Y-type, one is 9 Light Years away.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/news/wise20110823.html

Hmmmm... wonder what the distinction between T and Y actually looks like in terms of spectral features.

The First Hundred Brown Dwarfs Discovered by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)
http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.4677

The Discovery of Y Dwarfs Using Data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)
http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.4678

WISE J111838.70+312537.9 is a newly-discovered member of the nearby multiple star system Alula Australis:
A T8.5 Brown Dwarf Member of the Xi Ursae Majoris System

More Y-dwarfs...
Further Defining Spectral Type "Y" and Exploring the Low-mass End of the Field Brown Dwarf Mass Function

Brown dwarfs seem to be rarer than expected...
WISE Finds Few Brown Dwarfs Close to Home

I find that somewhat disappointing...

Sunchaser wrote:

I find that somewhat disappointing...

Look on the bright side: There's a smaller chance of a brown dwarf infiltrating the Solar system and messing things up as we all go around the Great Milky Way Merry-Go-Round.

Not so surprising result, actually. If my memory serves, the detected number of young brown dwarfs in star clusters is much less than the number of stars?

BTW, this result of course does not exclude the possibility that there are rogue planets between the Sun and Alpha Centauri, masses up to several Jupiters.

Or less maybe

Confusion limited surveys: using WISE to quantify the rarity of warm dust around Kepler stars

One candidate dust disc around an A-type star (KIC 7345479).

Not related to exoplanets or brown dwarfs, but definitely worth mentioning:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/news/wise20120829.html

Bonanza of newfound supermassive black holes and extreme galaxies called hot DOGs, or dust-obscured galaxies.