I am using multi-epoch astrometry from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer ( WISE ) to search for new members of the solar neighborhood via their high proper motions .
Through this work , I have identified WISE J104915.57-531906.1 as a high proper motion object and have found additional detections in images from the Digitized Sky Survey , the Two Micron All-Sky Survey , and the Deep Near-Infrared Survey of the Southern Sky .
I have measured a parallax of 0.496 \pm 0.037 \arcsec ( 2.0 \pm 0.15 pc ) from the astrometry in these surveys , making WISE J104915.57-531906.1 the third closest system to the Sun .
During spectroscopic observations with GMOS at Gemini Observatory , an i -band acquisition image resolved it as a 1 \farcs 5 ( 3 AU ) binary .
A spectrum was collected for the primary , which I classify as L8 \pm 1 .
The secondary is probably near the L/T transition as well given that it is only modestly fainter than the primary ( \Delta i = 0.45 mag ) .