Discovery of Cold Brown Dwarfs or Free-Floating Giant Planets Close to the Sun

Abstract

This White Paper describes the opportunities for discovery of Jupiter-mass objects with 300K atmospheres. The discovery and characterization of such cold objects is vital for understanding the low-mass terminus of the initial mass function and for optimizing the study of exoplanets by the next generation of large telescopes, space probes and space missions.

White Paper submitted for Astro2020 Science