Hi all!
I came across this article and thought I'd post it here because it seems like a rather interesting discovery
I think it's extremely interesting that the project was design to find the hypothetical Planet Nine (or ten) but found this Brown Dwarf instead. Could this be the Sun's "sister"? Or am I reading too much into it?
There are other articles in Science Daily and the Independent:
Cold brown dwarf discovered close to our solar system
_https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170602112832.htm
Amateur astronomers find 'failed star' 100 light years from sun
_http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/amateur-astronomers-find-failed-star-100-light-years-from-sun-new-world-discovery-nasa-a7772451.html
I came across this article and thought I'd post it here because it seems like a rather interesting discovery
First Discovery for ‘Backyard Worlds: Planet 9’ Project: Cold Brown Dwarf
{...}
On February 21, 2017, just six days after the launch of the website, Backyard Worlds volunteer Bob Fletcher, a science teacher at Lambert School in Hobart, Tasmania, noted the existence of a small ‘dipole’ in the flipbook showing the ‘subtile’ centered at R.A. 165.46 degrees, declination 54.03 degrees.
Three other citizen astronomers — Rosa Castro from the United States, Khasan Mokaev from Kabardino-Balkar Republic, and Tamara Stajic from Serbia — also helped classify this flipbook and noted the object.
After some initial investigation, Backyard World’s researchers were awarded time on the 3-m NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, where they confirmed that it was a previously unknown brown dwarf.
“I was so proud of our volunteers as I saw the data on this new cold world coming in. It was a feel-good moment for science,” said Dr. Jackie Faherty, a senior scientist in the American Museum of Natural History’s Department of Astrophysics and one of Backyard World’s researchers.
The newfound brown dwarf, WISEA J110125.95+540052.8, is approximately 111 light-years away.
It is just a few hundred degrees warmer than Jupiter and belongs to spectral class T.
“Brown dwarfs are strikingly similar to Jupiter so we study their atmospheres in order to look at what weather on other worlds might look like,” said Dr. Jonathan Gagné, a Backyard Worlds team member from the Carnegie Institution for Science.
Althoughthe team hopes to find the hypothetical Planet Nine, these brown dwarfs are also exciting discoveries.
“It’s possible that there is a cold world closer than what we believe to be the closest star to the Sun,” Dr. Faherty said.
“Given enough time, I think our volunteers are going help to complete the map of our solar neighborhood.”
The discovery is reported in the Astrophysical Journal Letters (arXiv.org preprint).
_http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/backyard-worlds-planet-9-cold-brown-dwarf-04919.html
I think it's extremely interesting that the project was design to find the hypothetical Planet Nine (or ten) but found this Brown Dwarf instead. Could this be the Sun's "sister"? Or am I reading too much into it?
There are other articles in Science Daily and the Independent:
Cold brown dwarf discovered close to our solar system
_https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170602112832.htm
Amateur astronomers find 'failed star' 100 light years from sun
_http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/amateur-astronomers-find-failed-star-100-light-years-from-sun-new-world-discovery-nasa-a7772451.html