[citation needed] Estimates indicate that the WISE 0720−0846 system passed about 52,000 astronomical units (0.25 parsecs; 0.82 light-years) from the Sun about 70,000 years ago.

[2] Comets perturbed from the Oort cloud would require roughly two million years to get to the inner Solar System.

[2] At closest approach the system would have had an apparent magnitude of about 11.4, and would have been best viewed from high latitudes in the northern hemisphere.

[3] A later recalculation of the impact parameters using updated Solar System data showed that the perihelion distance during the encounter had a median value of 0.330 pc with a 90% probability of having come within 0.317–0.345 pc of the Sun; the associated time of perihelion passage was determined to be between 78.6–81.1 kyr ago with 90% confidence, with a most likely value of 79.9 kyr.

[10] The star was first discovered to be a nearby one by astronomer Ralf-Dieter Scholz,[6] announced on arXiv in November 2013.