Citizen scientists helped NASA find brown dwarfs from NASA’s NEOWISE satellite

In a mission titled Backyard Worlds: Planet 9  launched in February 2020, citizen astromers helped NASA’s scientists discover  existence of a brown dwarf a little more than 100 light-years away from Sun. According to a press release by NASA on July 11, Museum astromer Jackie Faherty said NASA could detect rare bizarre objects in cosmos owing to ‘backyard astromers’ that led  science team to some curious objects after observing data from NASA’s NEOWISE satellite.  

Kwn as  " first extreme T-type subdwarfs",  unusual brown dwarfs weigh 75 times more than Jupiter, largest planet in our Solar System, and are about 10 billion years old. As per NASA, se objects that resembled brown dwarfs were a kind of balls of gases that were too huge to be called planets, but at same time too small to be called stars. refore,  celestial bodies ncy launched a project for scientists as well as  members of public interested in astromy to find se objects floating in solar system.  

Participants in NASA-funded Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project led observations of sky data collected between 2009 and 2011 under its previous moniker, WISE. At least six scientists and co-authors in  study published in Astrophysical Journal that details se discoveries and potential implications are aspiring astromers.  

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Volunteers found objects 

Study’s lead author, Adam Schneider of Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Exploration in Tempe, Adam Schneider, was first to detect one of unusual brown dwarfs, called WISE 1810, in 2016. However, challenge was that it was in a crowded area of sky and was difficult to confirm. refore, citizen scientist Dan Caselden, Schneider used tool called WiseView, created by Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 and found that  object Schneider had seen years ago was moving quickly, and this indicated that object was a nearby celestial body like a planet or brown dwarf. 

WiseView scrolls through data like a short movie, Schneider said,  so you can see more easily see if something is moving or t.

Ar group of citizen scientist including Backyard Worlds participants Paul Beaulieu, Sam Goodman, William Pendrill, Austin Rormich, and Arttu Sainio discovered  second unusual brown dwarf, WISE 0414, after y observed through hundreds of ims taken by WISE. “ discovery of se two brown dwarfs shows that science enthusiasts can contribute to scientific process,” Schneider said. “Through Backyard Worlds, thousands of people can work toger to find unusual objects in solar neighborhood.” 

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(Ims Credit: Astrophysical Journals/NASA)