How cold can stars get?

The stars with the lowest surface temperatures are M-type red stars and especially brown dwarfs.

A brown dwarf, with a mass equal to between 6 and 15 Jovian masses, was discovered 75 light years from us, and it’s colder than a hot drink.

It has been named CFBDSIR 1458 10b, and it is a brown dwarf or “failed star”, due to its star-like composition but barely sufficient mass to trigger nuclear fusion.

Its surface temperature is around 97 degrees Celsius, so ‘cold’ that it could technically even support a watery atmosphere, complete with clouds and rain.

It is a celestial body that blurs the line between gas giants and brown dwarfs, and in addition, NASA scientists are working to confirm an even colder brown dwarf with possible surface temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius, far less than many other places here on earth.

The problem is that these stars are difficult to detect. Brown dwarfs do not emit much light or heat, which makes them invisible without an infrared telescope.