Citizen Science associated with NASA carries out a census of the Cosmos 65 light years From the Sun

The results of the study carried out by "citizen scientists" associated with NASA, a census at 65 light years of the Sun to learn more about our neighbours of the solar system, were announced.

Census of 65 light-years from the Sun, brown dwarfs.
This artist's conception illustrates the brown dwarf called 2MASSJ22282889-431026. NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes observed the object to learn more about its turbulent atmosphere. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

To perform a census of nearby cosmic objects, sending a survey will clearly not work. Scientists need to use many telescopes with different specializations to draw a map and list everything that is in the general neighbourhood of the Sun.

That's why, through the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project, citizen scientists have helped professional scientists create a new census that resulted in more than 3,500 cosmic objects, they say from NASA.

A new study in The Astrophysical Journal shows the results of that census at 65 light years from the Sun. The researchers found that there are four times more stars than brown dwarfs, but that low-mass objects are more common than those of large mass.

The Brown Dwarfs

Brown dwarfs are not entirely stars and neither planets, it is an element of the intermediate cosmos. Comparatively speaking, Jupiter is more massive, but they do not fuse hydrogen in their nuclei as even lower-massed stars do.

Sun, a low-mass red dwarf star, a brown dwarf, Jupiter and the Earth
Comparative illustration between: our Sun, a low-mass red dwarf star, a brown dwarf, Jupiter and the Earth. Credits: social networks, textures rendered in Cinema 4D R16 by Björn Jónsson, FarGetaNik, cubic Apocalypse and Planetkid32

The study supports the idea that the process of formation of brown dwarfs is somehow different from the process of formation of stars of greater mass. It is believed that both types of objects are formed when a cloud of gas and dust collapses, but there could be different "seeds" that determine whether one type of object or another is formed.

Brown dwarfs are more massive and hotter than planets, but they lack the mass necessary to become hot stars. Its atmospheres may be similar to those of the giant planet Jupiter.

The next step in this line of research is to examine data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, which studies the molecular clouds that contain the seeds of stars, brown dwarfs and planets. Future research could reveal more about how those seeds differ from each other.

Three citizen scientists of the Backyard Worlds project have gained observation time on the James Webb Space Telescope, as co-researchers of selected proposals for this instrument.

Citizen Scientists

The researchers managed to organise the objects of the census according to three different types of masses, in which the frequency of the objects changed suddenly. This indicates that there are different physical effects responsible for creating the different types of objects.

"There is something about the star-forming process buried in that data," said J. Davy Kirkpatrick, lead author of the study and scientific researcher at Caltech's IPAC (Center for Infrared Analysis and Processing) in Pasadena, California. "We have another clue of how it works."

Citizen scientists accelerated the process of identifying objects in this census between 10 and 15 years, with respect to what researchers would have taken to do that work without them, Kirkpatrick said.

Through Backyard Worlds, citizen scientists indicate if the objects in sets of images could be "close" (within the general neighbourhood of our Sun in the galaxy), looking for the movement of the objects in relation to the background.

NASA citizen science carries out a census of the cosmos 65 light years from the Sun
NASA citizen science carries out a census of the cosmos 65 light years from the Sun

Using a tool called WiseView that was developed by a group of citizen scientists to easily join images of NASA's WISE (Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer) mission, the volunteers created animations to find moving objects. "They have made the project more efficient for everyone else," Kirkpatrick said.

Previously, citizen scientists helped to search the scientific literature for what was known about these objects, through the Stellar Ambassadors program, also created by Kirkpatrick.

Participate in Citizen Science Projects associated with NASA

The citizen scientists who participated in this recent study and obtained credit as co-authors, when he is not looking for cosmic data are (as in the case of Léopold Gramaize), working as director of security and operations of the airports of Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Le Bourget.

brown dwarf
This artistic concept of the citizen scientist William Pendrill shows, on the left, a cold brown dwarf called Dwarf T and, on the right, a warmer brown dwarf passing in front of a distant star. Participant in Backyard Worlds: Planet 9. Credits: William Pendril.

Gramaize met the Backyard Worlds project in 2019 and loved the idea of looking for brown dwarfs, which he had never heard of before. Gramaize was so interested in these objects that he learned to code to be able to search faster in astronomical databases. As part of this particular study, he co-discovered some brown dwarfs and helped with the review of the scientific literature.

There are more than 40 citizen science projects associated with NASA. Participation is open to everyone around the world and is not limited to citizens or residents of the United States.

Since April is Citizen Science Month, do not miss, very soon, the next report from Meteored Argentina on: what are NASA's citizen science projects with collaborations between scientists and interested members of the open public that currently exist, and you could participate since it is for all ages, nations and levels of training.