Luhman 16 facts for kids

The Luhman 16 binary brown dwarf is the yellow disc at the center of this WISE image. The two individual stars are seen as one here.

Luhman 16 is a binary brown dwarf in the southern constellation Vela at 6.6 light-years from the Sun. It is also known as WISE 1049-5319.

These are the nearest known brown dwarfs to the Solar System, and the closest system discovered since Barnard's Star in 1916.

The primary has a stellar classification of L8 ± 1, and the secondary is probably near the L/T transition. The pair orbit each other at a distance of about 3 AU with an orbital period of about 25 years.

Images for kids

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  Luhman 16 is the yellow disc at the center of this WISE image. The individual brown dwarfs are not resolved.

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  Stars and brown dwarfs closest to the Sun, including WISE 1049−5319 (or Luhman 16), as of 2014.

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  Luhman 16A and B orbit each other at a distance of only 3.5 AU.