UK, US Astronomers: That’s One Cool Star

An international team, led by astronomers at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK, has discovered one of the coolest sub-stellar bodies ever found outside our own solar system.

The new object — dubbed Wolf 940B — orbits the red dwarf star Wolf 940, 40 light years from Earth. It’s thought to have formed like a star, but has ended up looking more like Jupiter. It is roughly the same size, despite being between 20 and 30 times as heavy, and when the infrared spectral “fingerprints” of the two objects are compared, their resemblance is striking, say Wolf 940B’s discoverers.

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