WISE

The cosmos is full of strange things, like planets made of diamond, mysterious radio bursts and quasars that shine like 600 trillion Suns. Now astronomers have spotted a bizarre star that may prove to be one of the rarest objects ever, with maybe as few as five or six of them in the galaxy.

The Sun is a mere 10-watt bulb compared to quasars, extremely luminous galactic cores that shine so intensely thanks to their ravenous hunger for nearby material. Now, astronomers have detected the brightest quasar ever found, shining with the light of almost 600 trillion Suns.

A new study has measured 200,000 galaxies in an effort to chart the rate at which our Universe is outputting energy, and effectively dying.

Astronomers using NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered a dim star-like “brown dwarf” about 7.2 light years from Earth that's colder than the North Pole.

NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) has sent back the first test images from its 16-in (40-cm) telescope and infrared cameras as it begins its new mission to seek out potentially dangerous asteroids.

A binary stellar system consisting of a pair of brown dwarf stars has been discovered at a distance of only 6.5 light years, making these the fourth and fifth closest stars to the Sun.