Michael Cushing

  Ritter Astrophysical Research Center

  University of Toledo

  Mail Stop 113

  Toledo, OH 43606

  Email: michael.cushing at gmail dot com

I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Toledo.  My research focuses on the study of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs using ground- and spaced-based telescopes and developing the algorithms to both reduce and analyze these data.    Please see my Research Page for more information.

Last modified on: 

August 24, 2011

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What’s New?

(Aug 2011)  WISE discovers Y dwarfs!

Using the Hubble Space Telescope, the Keck II Telescope atop Mauna Kea, and the Magellan Telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory (among others) we have discovered  a new class of brown dwarfs, the Y dwarfs.  These failed stars have temperatures ranging from 300 to 500 K, and are thus the coldest brown dwarfs currently known.  One of them has a preliminary distance estimate of about 9 light years, making it the seventh closest star to the Sun.  Please see the official press release for more information.

An artist’s rendition of a Y dwarf.