WISE 1217+1626 A was discovered in 2011 by J. Davy Kirkpatrick et al. from data, collected by Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) Earth-orbiting satellite - NASA infrared-wavelength 40 cm (16 in) space telescope, which mission lasted from December 2009 to February 2011.
Initial estimate of WISE 1217+1626' spectral type (before discovery of its binarity) was T9 (the same as the component's A type estimate made after this discovery).