An ancient space object is fast, faint, and there may be billions more like it

A very odd object has been found zipping through the galaxy on a path relatively near to the Sun, and while nothing quite like it has ever been seen before, it may be the first of many such old, cold things prevalent in the Milky Way.

The object is called WISEA J153429.75−104303.3 (WISE is the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer space observatory, and the numbers are its coordinates on the sky; let’s call it WISE 1534 for short). Its discovery is a story all by itself: It was found by citizen s...