WISE 0146+4234

WISE J014656.66+423410.0 is a binary brown dwarf of spectral classes T9 and Y0 located in the constellation Andromeda. It is approximately 60 light-years from Earth.
Analysis of the spectrum shows that the binary is probably old and has a total mass of for an age of 10 billion years. If it is however young, it would be a pair of planetary-mass objects with a total mass of . For an old system an orbital period of ≤10 years was predicted. Another work estimated an age of billion years, which was then used to estimate masses of 7–15 and 6–14. The binary was observed with JWST NIRSpec and MIRI. The unresolved spectrum shows strong absorption due to ammonia and methane, as well as weak carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide absoption. The researchers find that the spectrum resembles a combination of W0751 and W1405, but comparisons with models yields different temperatures. The components have a large difference in Spitzer color, while having a small difference in temperature. This could hint at atmospheric changes at the T/Y transition.

Discovery

WISE 0146+4234 was discovered in 2012 by J. Davy Kirkpatrick et al. from data, collected by Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) Earth-orbiting satellite—NASA infrared-wavelength 40 cm space telescope, which mission lasted from December 2009 to February 2011. In 2012 Kirkpatrick et al. published a paper in The Astrophysical Journal, where they presented discovery of seven new found by WISE brown dwarfs of spectral type Y, among which also was WISE 0146+4234.

Distance

The distance of WISE 0146+4234 was initially estimated to be 20 light-years from earth. Later measurements of its stellar parallax showed that it was actually 60 light-years away.