astronomy

WISE 1828+2650

WISE 1828+2650 is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand WISE 1828+2650 rather than just read about it. In short: WISE 1828+2650 (full designation WISEPA J182831.08+265037.8) is a possibly binary brown dwarf or rogue planet of spectral class >Y2, located in the constellation Lyra at approximately 32.5 light-years from Earth. It is the "archetypal member" of the Y spectral class.

Key takeaways

WISE 1828+2650 belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect WISE 1828+2650 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of WISE 1828+2650 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

WISE 1828+2650 (full designation WISEPA J182831.08+265037.8) is a possibly binary brown dwarf or rogue planet of spectral class >Y2, located in the constellation Lyra at approximately 32.5 light-years from Earth. It is the "archetypal member" of the Y spectral class.

History of observations

Discovery WISE 1828+2650 was discovered in 2011 from data collected by NASA's 40 cm (16 in) Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope at infrared wavelength. WISE 1828+2650 has two discovery papers: Kirkpatrick et al. (2011) and Cushing et al. (2011), however, basically with the same authors and published nearly simultaneously.

Kirkpatrick et al. presented discovery of 98 new found by WISE brown dwarf systems with components of spectral types M, L, T and Y, among which also was WISE 1828+2650 – coolest of them. Cushing et al. presented discovery of seven brown dwarfs – one of T9.5 type, and six of Y-type – first members of the Y spectral class, ever discovered and spectroscopically confirmed, including "archetypal member" of the Y spectral class – WISE 1828+2650. These seven objects are also the faintest seven of 98 brown dwarfs, presented in Kirkpatrick et al. (2011).

Distance Currently the most accurate distance estimate of WISE 1828+2650 is a trigonometric parallax, published in 2021 by Kirkpatrick et al.: 100.3±2.0 mas, corresponding to a distance of 10.0±0.2 pc, or 32.5±0.6 ly.

Proper motion WISE 1828+2650 has a proper motion of 1,030.5±1.1 milliarcseconds per year.

Physical properties Until the discovery of WISE 0855−0714 in 2014, WISE 1828+2650 was considered as the coldest currently known brown dwarf or the first example of free-floating planet (it is not currently known if it is a brown dwarf or a free-floating planet). It has a temperature in the range 250–400 K (−23–127 °C; −10–260 °F) and was initially estimated below 300 K, or about 27 °C (81 °F). It has been assigned the latest known spectral class (>Y2, initially estimated as >Y0). The mass of WISE 1828+2650 is in the range 0.5–20 MJup for ages of 0.1–10 Gyr. The high tangential velocity of WISE 1828+2650, characteristic of an old disk population, indicates a possible age of WISE 1828+2650 in the range 2–4 Gyr, leading to a mass estimate of about 3–6 MJup. This suggests that WISE 1828+2650 may be a free-floating planet rather than a brown dwarf, since it is below the lower mass limit for deuterium fusion (~13 MJup). WISE 1828+2650 is similar in appearance to the other Y-type object WD 0806-661 B. WD 0806-661 B could have formed as a planet close to its primary, WD 0806-661 A, and later, when the primary became a white dwarf and lost most of its mass, have migrated into a larger orbit of 2500 AU, and similarity between WD 0806-661 B and WISE 1828+2650 may indicate that WISE 1828+2650 had formed in the same way. JWST observation with MIRI detected water vapor (H2O), methane (CH4) and ammonia (NH3) in the atmosphere of WISE 1828+2650. The work detected a low amount of ammonia containing the 15N isotope when compared to ammonia containing the 14N isotope. The 14NH3-to-15NH3 ratio was measured as 670. This amount of 15NH3 is lower than in any Solar System body and it is an indication that WISE 1828+2650 has formed like a star and not like a planet. Thus, this provides evidence that the object is a (sub-)brown dwarf and not a free-floating planet. Another team used the NIRSpec instrument on JWST and detected water vapor, methane, ammonia, carbon monoxide (12CO), carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S). These molecules are the major carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur bearing species in the atmosphere of WISE 1828+2650. The carbon-to-oxygen ratio (C/O ratio) is with 0.45±0.01 close to the solar ratio. The abundance of carbon, oxygen and sulfur is higher than the sun, but the abundance of nitrogen is likely similar to the sun.

Possible binarity Comparison between WISE 1828+2650 and WD 0806-661 B may suggest that WISE 1828+2650 is a system of two equal-mass objects. Observations with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Keck-II LGS-AO system had not revealed binarity, suggesting that if any such companion exists, it would have an orbit less than 0.5 AU, and no direct evidence for binarity yet exists. However, the spectrum of the system best fits a pair of brown dwarfs, each with an effective temperature of about 325 K and a mass of about 5 MJ. JWST NIRCam imaging observations did not find a companion at a separation larger than 0.5 astronomical units. NIRSpec low resolution prism observations cannot be explained with existing Sonora Bobcat models of planetary objects, neither single nor multiple. The binary model fails to provide an improved fit for the existing photometric data. A newer analysis of the NIRSpec data compared radius determined with atmospheric retrieval framework CHIMERA and evolutionary model Sonora Bobcat. The CHIMERA radius for a single object (1.23±0.01 RJ) compared with predicted radius from Sonora Bobcat (10 Gyrs, 33 MJ,0.87 RJ) is too large for its age, which might be an indication that WISE 1828+2650 is an equal mass binary with both objects having a radius of 0.87 RJ. The estimated semi-major axis of this binary is 0.0098+0.002−0.006 astronomical units or 20+4−12 RJ. Sonora Bobcat however predicts a lower age (1.4 Gyrs) and mass (9.982 MJ) when using the temperature and gravity from Sonora Elf Owl atmospheric model grid. Future observations could look for radial velocity variations to confirm the binary.

Comparison

See also The other six discoveries of brown dwarfs, published by Cushing et al. in 2011:

WISE 0148−7202 (T9.5) WISE 0410+1502 (Y0) WISE 1405+5534 (Y0 (pec?)) WISE 1541−2250 (Y0.5) WISE 1738+2732 (Y0) WISE 2056+1459 (Y0) Lists:

List of star systems within 30–35 light-years List of Y-dwarfs

Notes

References

External links Choi, Charles Q. (August 26, 2011). "Y dwarf star? Because they're cool, that's Y!". Space.com. Retrieved August 31, 2011. NASA news release Archived 2016-01-10 at the Wayback Machine Science news Archived 2011-10-07 at the Wayback Machine NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: Infrared image of WISE 1828+2650 (30 August 2011) Solstation.com (New Objects within 20 light-years)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with WISE 1828+2650

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what WISE 1828+2650 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to WISE 1828+2650 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about WISE 1828+2650 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of WISE 1828+2650

In research: WISE 1828+2650 appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses WISE 1828+2650 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: WISE 1828+2650 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Astronomical objects discovered in 2011, Lyra, Rogue planets, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for WISE 1828+2650 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study WISE 1828+2650 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what WISE 1828+2650 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is WISE 1828+2650 in simple terms?

Why does WISE 1828+2650 matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study WISE 1828+2650?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on WISE 1828+2650.