NASA data, which is open to members of the public, has yielded some extraordinary results after “citizen scientists” found brown dwarf stars lurking near our solar system. The odd stars, which are something between a star and a planet, are within a “few dozen light-years” of the Sun, so not quite our solar system, “but still inhabit a region astronomers consider our cosmic neighbourhood”, NASA said.
Some of the brown dwarf stars, which are comparable to gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn, are cooler than the boiling point of water, and the relatively cold entities have been hiding in plain sight.
These brown dwarfs with low temperatures are relatively small and do not produce much light, making them difficult to spot.
However, data open to the public as part of NASA’s Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, a NASA-funded citizen science project that is a collaboration between volunteers and professional scientists, has proved they are there.
NASA highlighted the importance of these celestial bodies: “Discovering and characterising astronomical objects near the Sun is fundamental to our understanding of our place in, and the history of, the universe.
“With their relatively cold temperatures, these newly discovered brown dwarfs represent a long sought missing link within the brown dwarf population.
“In 2014, scientists discovered the coldest-known brown dwarf, called WISE 0855, using data from NASA’s WISE mission in infrared light.
“WISE 0855 is about minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 23 degrees Celsius. No other brown dwarf came close to this object’s low temperature.
“Some researchers wondered if 0855 was actually a rogue exoplanet – a planet that originated in a star system but was kicked out of its orbit.
“This new batch of brown dwarfs, together with others recently discovered using NEOWISE and Spitzer, puts 0855 in context.”
Astrophysicist Marc Kuchner, the principal investigator of Backyard Worlds and the Citizen Science Officer for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said: “Our new discoveries help connect the dots between 0855 and the other known brown dwarfs.”
The same process of formation may occur for both planets and brown dwarfs – where gas and dust begin to congregate and eventually create a gravitational pull through their increasing mass – so understanding the stars will help scientists understand our standing within the cosmos.
Citizen scientist Jackie Faherty of the American Museum of Natural History in New York said: “This paper is evidence that the solar neighbourhood is still uncharted territory and citizen scientists are excellent astronomical cartographers.
“Mapping the coldest brown dwarfs down to the lowest masses gives us key insights into the low-mass star-formation process while providing a target list for detailed studies of the atmospheres of Jupiter analogs.”