SCR 1845-6357 is a dim red dwarf in Pavo that was found only recently, orbited by a cold brown dwarf that has been photographed directly.
At a glance
| type | red dwarf (class M) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 12.6 light-years (3.85 pc) |
| its light left it | 12.6 years ago |
| luminosity | 0.0009 × the Sun |
| radius | 0.13 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 2,650 K |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About SCR 1845-6357
SCR 1845-6357 is a very small, cool red dwarf, far too faint for the naked eye. Its name records how it was found: it was picked out in the SuperCOSMOS sky survey by its motion across old photographic plates, and its closeness was confirmed by measuring its distance, well after most of the Sun’s neighbours were known.
It has a companion, a brown dwarf too small to sustain hydrogen fusion and so cool that it glows mainly in infrared. Astronomers imaged it directly beside the star using adaptive optics on a large telescope in Chile, making it one of the nearest brown dwarfs known.
What you see in the piece
Fly to it and you find a small, deep-red disc. In HUMAN EYE there is nothing to see where it lies in Pavo.
Questions
What is SCR 1845-6357?
A red dwarf (class M) 12.6 light-years (3.85 pc) from the Sun, with a brown dwarf companion.