Brown Dwarf Stars Toward Orion

The locations of brown dwarfs discovered by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, and mapped by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, are shown in this diagram as red circles. The red lines all link back to the location of the sun.

The view is from a vantage point about 100 light-years away from the sun, looking back toward the constellation Orion. At this distance, our sun is barely visible as a speck of light. The vastly fainter brown dwarfs would not even be visible in this view.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Note: For more information, see PIA17258: Free-floating Failed Star (Artist Concept) and Coldest Brown Dwarfs Blur Star, Planet Lines.