Astronomers find evidence of water clouds in first spectrum of coldest brown dwarf

(University of California - Santa Cruz) Since its detection in 2014, the brown dwarf known as WISE 0855 has fascinated astronomers. Only 7.2 light-years from Earth, it is the coldest known object outside of our solar system and is just barely visible at infrared wavelengths with the largest ground-based telescopes. Now, a team led by astronomers at UC Santa Cruz has succeeded in obtaining an infrared spectrum of WISE 0855, providing the first details of the object's composition and chemistry.