4 min read<\/p>\n
NASA Citizen Scientists Spot Object Moving 1 Million Miles Per Hour<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/subdwarf-1.jpg?w=1200\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nThis artist\u2019s concept shows a hypothetical white dwarf, left, that has exploded as a supernova. The object at right is CWISE J1249, a star or brown dwarf ejected from this system as a result of the explosion. This scenario is one explanation for where CWISE J1249 came from.<\/div>\nW.M. Keck Observatory\/Adam Makarenko<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nMost familiar stars peacefully orbit the center of the Milky Way. But citizen scientists<\/a> working on NASA\u2019s Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project have\u00a0helped discover an object\u00a0moving so fast that it will escape the Milky Way\u2019s gravity and shoot into intergalactic space.\u00a0This hypervelocity object is the first such object found with the mass similar to or less than that of a small star. \u00a0<\/p>\nBackyard Worlds uses images from NASA\u2019s WISE<\/a>, or Wide Field Infrared Explorer, mission, which mapped the sky in infrared light from 2009 to 2011. It was re-activated as NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) in 2013 and retired on Aug. 8, 2024.<\/p>\nA few years ago, longtime Backyard Worlds citizen scientists Martin Kabatnik,\u00a0Thomas P. Bickle, and\u00a0Dan Caselden<\/a> spotted a faint,\u00a0fast-moving\u00a0object called\u00a0CWISE J124909.08+362116.0, marching across their screens in the WISE images. Follow-up observations with several ground-based telescopes helped scientists confirm the discovery and characterize the object. These citizen scientists are now co-authors on the team\u2019s\u00a0study about this discovery published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters (a pre-print version is available here<\/a>).<\/p>\n\u201cI can\u2019t describe the level of excitement,\u201d said Kabatnik, a citizen scientist from Nuremberg, Germany. \u201cWhen I first saw how fast it was moving, I was convinced it must have been reported already.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
CWISE J1249 is zooming out of the Milky Way at\u00a0about 1 million miles per hour. But it also stands out for its low mass, which makes it difficult to classify as a celestial object. It could be a low-mass star, or if it doesn\u2019t steadily fuse hydrogen in its core, it would be considered a brown dwarf, putting it somewhere between a gas giant planet and a star.<\/p>\n
Ordinary\u00a0brown dwarfs are not that rare. Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 volunteers have discovered more than 4,000 of them!\u00a0But none of the others\u00a0are\u00a0known to be on\u00a0their\u00a0way out of the galaxy.<\/p>\n
This new object has yet another\u00a0unique\u00a0property.\u00a0Data obtained with the W. M. Keck Observatory\u00a0in\u00a0Maunakea, Hawaii,\u00a0show\u00a0that it has much less iron and other metals than other stars and brown dwarfs. This unusual composition suggests that CWISE J1249 is quite old, likely from one of the first generations of stars in our galaxy.<\/p>\n
Why does this object move at such high speed? One hypothesis is that CWISE J1249 originally came from a binary system with a white dwarf, which exploded as a supernova when it pulled off too much material from its companion. Another possibility is that it came from a tightly bound cluster of stars called a globular cluster, and a chance meeting with a pair of black holes sent it soaring away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a star encounters a black hole binary, the complex dynamics of this three-body interaction can toss that star right out of the globular cluster,\u201d says Kyle Kremer, incoming assistant professor in UC San Diego\u2019s Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.<\/p>\n
Scientists will look more closely at the elemental composition of CWISE J1249 for clues about which of these scenarios is more likely.<\/p>\n
This discovery has been a team effort on multiple levels\u2014a collaboration involving volunteers, professionals, and students. Kabatnik credits other citizen scientists with helping him search, including Melina Th\u00e9venot<\/a>,\u00a0who \u201cblew my mind with her personal blog about doing searches using Astronomical Data Query Language,\u201d he said. Software written by citizen scientist Frank Kiwy<\/a> was also instrumental in this finding, he said.<\/p>\nThe study is led by Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 science team member\u00a0Adam Burgasser, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, and includes co-authors Hunter Brooks and Austin Rothermich, astronomy students who both began their astronomy careers as citizen scientists.<\/p>\n
Become a citizen scientist<\/h3>\n
Want to help\u00a0discover the next extraordinary space object?\u00a0Join the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9<\/a>\u00a0now\u00a0\u2014 participation is open to anyone in any country worldwide.<\/p>\nPodcast<\/h3>\n
Check out\u00a0this NASA\u2019s Curious Universe<\/a>\u00a0podcast episode to hear personal stories from citizen scientists engaged NASA-related projects.<\/p>\nMedia contact<\/h3>\n
Elizabeth Landau
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0845
elandau@nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\nPowered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\nGet The Details…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most familiar stars peacefully orbit the center of the Milky Way. But citizen scientists working on NASA\u2019s Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project have\u00a0helped discover an object\u00a0moving so fast that it will escape the Milky Way\u2019s gravity and shoot into intergalactic space.\u00a0This hypervelocity object is the first such object found with the mass similar to or [\u2026] Continue reading
![\"In](\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/subdwarf-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>Most familiar stars peacefully orbit the center of the Milky Way. But citizen scientists<\/a> working on NASA\u2019s Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project have\u00a0helped discover an object\u00a0moving so fast that it will escape the Milky Way\u2019s gravity and shoot into intergalactic space.\u00a0This hypervelocity object is the first such object found with the mass similar to or less than that of a small star. \u00a0<\/p>\n Backyard Worlds uses images from NASA\u2019s WISE<\/a>, or Wide Field Infrared Explorer, mission, which mapped the sky in infrared light from 2009 to 2011. It was re-activated as NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) in 2013 and retired on Aug. 8, 2024.<\/p>\n A few years ago, longtime Backyard Worlds citizen scientists Martin Kabatnik,\u00a0Thomas P. Bickle, and\u00a0Dan Caselden<\/a> spotted a faint,\u00a0fast-moving\u00a0object called\u00a0CWISE J124909.08+362116.0, marching across their screens in the WISE images. Follow-up observations with several ground-based telescopes helped scientists confirm the discovery and characterize the object. These citizen scientists are now co-authors on the team\u2019s\u00a0study about this discovery published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters (a pre-print version is available here<\/a>).<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t describe the level of excitement,\u201d said Kabatnik, a citizen scientist from Nuremberg, Germany. \u201cWhen I first saw how fast it was moving, I was convinced it must have been reported already.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n CWISE J1249 is zooming out of the Milky Way at\u00a0about 1 million miles per hour. But it also stands out for its low mass, which makes it difficult to classify as a celestial object. It could be a low-mass star, or if it doesn\u2019t steadily fuse hydrogen in its core, it would be considered a brown dwarf, putting it somewhere between a gas giant planet and a star.<\/p>\n Ordinary\u00a0brown dwarfs are not that rare. Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 volunteers have discovered more than 4,000 of them!\u00a0But none of the others\u00a0are\u00a0known to be on\u00a0their\u00a0way out of the galaxy.<\/p>\n This new object has yet another\u00a0unique\u00a0property.\u00a0Data obtained with the W. M. Keck Observatory\u00a0in\u00a0Maunakea, Hawaii,\u00a0show\u00a0that it has much less iron and other metals than other stars and brown dwarfs. This unusual composition suggests that CWISE J1249 is quite old, likely from one of the first generations of stars in our galaxy.<\/p>\n Why does this object move at such high speed? One hypothesis is that CWISE J1249 originally came from a binary system with a white dwarf, which exploded as a supernova when it pulled off too much material from its companion. Another possibility is that it came from a tightly bound cluster of stars called a globular cluster, and a chance meeting with a pair of black holes sent it soaring away.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a star encounters a black hole binary, the complex dynamics of this three-body interaction can toss that star right out of the globular cluster,\u201d says Kyle Kremer, incoming assistant professor in UC San Diego\u2019s Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.<\/p>\n Scientists will look more closely at the elemental composition of CWISE J1249 for clues about which of these scenarios is more likely.<\/p>\n This discovery has been a team effort on multiple levels\u2014a collaboration involving volunteers, professionals, and students. Kabatnik credits other citizen scientists with helping him search, including Melina Th\u00e9venot<\/a>,\u00a0who \u201cblew my mind with her personal blog about doing searches using Astronomical Data Query Language,\u201d he said. Software written by citizen scientist Frank Kiwy<\/a> was also instrumental in this finding, he said.<\/p>\n The study is led by Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 science team member\u00a0Adam Burgasser, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, and includes co-authors Hunter Brooks and Austin Rothermich, astronomy students who both began their astronomy careers as citizen scientists.<\/p>\n Want to help\u00a0discover the next extraordinary space object?\u00a0Join the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9<\/a>\u00a0now\u00a0\u2014 participation is open to anyone in any country worldwide.<\/p>\n Check out\u00a0this NASA\u2019s Curious Universe<\/a>\u00a0podcast episode to hear personal stories from citizen scientists engaged NASA-related projects.<\/p>\n Elizabeth Landau Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n Get The Details…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most familiar stars peacefully orbit the center of the Milky Way. But citizen scientists working on NASA\u2019s Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project have\u00a0helped discover an object\u00a0moving so fast that it will escape the Milky Way\u2019s gravity and shoot into intergalactic space.\u00a0This hypervelocity object is the first such object found with the mass similar to or [\u2026] Continue reading Become a citizen scientist<\/h3>\n
Podcast<\/h3>\n
Media contact<\/h3>\n
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0845
elandau@nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n