Aster › Space program › Luhman 16
Luhman 16
Position on the route: 122/181 · level needed 1010 · journey (Mk0 engine) 302.8 h
By the numbers
| Distance | ≈ 6.5 light-years |
|---|---|
| Found | 2013, Luhman |
| Type | a pair of brown dwarfs |
| Rank | 3rd-nearest system to the Sun |
The story
Luhman 16 is a pair of brown dwarfs, neither planet nor star but in between, found in 2013 by Kevin Luhman in NASA’s WISE data. It is the third-nearest system to the Sun after Alpha Centauri and Barnard’s Star.
In 2014 Ian Crossfield and colleagues used the changing brightness to map the clouds on Luhman 16 B: the first weather map of a brown dwarf. Thick clouds of iron and silicate drift between hot and cool patches.
Missions
- WISE (NASA, 2010–11): discovery
- VLT (ESO, 2014): the weather map
Colony note
No surface; an orbital station only.
☠ Two brown dwarfs, neither star nor planet: no surface. An orbital station only.
What probes bring back
- The third-nearest star system to the Sun (≈ 6.5 light-years): two brown dwarfs found by Kevin Luhman in 2013. The nearest brown dwarfs to the Solar System.
- The first weather map of a brown dwarf was made here (2014): clouds drift between hot and cool regions and storms rage.