The Backyard Worlds citizen science initiative, a collaboration between NASA and the Zooniverse platform, has produced two notable developments: the publication of a major new catalog of brown dwarfs and the launch of a new search project focused on binary star systems.
Catalog of Over 3,000 Brown Dwarfs Published
A study published in the Astronomical Journal and led by astronomer Adam Schneider reports the discovery of over 3,000 new brown dwarfs. This finding effectively doubles the known population of these objects. Approximately 200,000 volunteers contributed to the analysis by reviewing images from NASA’s WISE and NEOWISE-R missions. Volunteers identified moving objects by "blinking" images taken over a 16-year period, a process which some participants automated by building their own search software.
The catalog includes a range of subtypes, including extreme T subdwarfs and ultra-cool objects. One notable entry is a brown dwarf exhibiting evidence of aurorae. The data is expected to improve models of mass distribution within the Milky Way and refine the mapping of the solar neighborhood.
Of the 75 co-authors on the study, 61 are volunteers. Two additional authors began as volunteers before pursuing careers in astronomy.
New Project to Identify Brown Dwarf-Star Pairs
A separate initiative, called Backyard Worlds: Binaries, is now recruiting volunteers to identify binary systems consisting of a brown dwarf and a star. The project, led by astronomer Aaron Meisner, uses images from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope.
Volunteers are tasked with identifying brown dwarfs that appear as moving points of light against a background of stationary stars. Determining a brown dwarf's age is a key objective of the project; this is facilitated by its association with a star of known age.
Brown dwarfs are defined as objects more massive than planets but less massive than stars.
According to the project, there is approximately one brown dwarf for every three to four stars in the Milky Way. The project is accessible via a laptop or cell phone and has no citizenship requirements. It operates alongside a related project, Backyard Worlds: Cool Neighbors.