A citizen scientist investigated NSF’s NOIRLab’s library of 4 billion celestial objects, NOIRLab Source Catalog DR2, to discover brown dwarfs with partners.

His thorough research yielded 34 ultracool dwarf binary systems, substantially tripling the number of known samples.

Brown dwarfs exist between the most gigantic planets and the most diminutive stars. Brown dwarfs, which lack the mass necessary to maintain nuclear reactions in their cores, resemble cooling embers on a far larger scale.

They are hard to spot due to their obscurity and diminutive sizes. Several thousand objects have been discovered thanks to the data from sensitive telescopes, but only a few of them have been confirmed to be binaries.

The frequency of brown dwarf companionship is also unknown due to the difficulties of monitoring these feeble embers.

In the past, astronomers working on the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 citizen science project used a worldwide network of more than 100,000 volunteer citizen scientists to help them find brown dwarfs. These volunteers looked at telescope images to find the tiny movement of brown dwarfs against the background stars.

Although machine learning and supercomputers have advanced, the human eye remains a superior tool for searching telescope images for moving objects.

Citizen scientist Frank Kiwy is one of these “super investigators.” He started a research project using the NOIRLab Source Catalog DR2, a list of nearly 4 billion unique celestial objects that includes all of the public imaging data in NOIRLab’s Astro Data Archive.

More than 2500 probable ultracool dwarfs were discovered by Kiwy by scanning the data for objects that matched the color of brown dwarfs.

Then, these were looked at for signs of moving companions, which led to the discovery of 34 systems with a white dwarf or low-mass star and an ultracool dwarf.

After that, Kiwy oversaw a group of expert astrophysicists who published their findings in a peer-reviewed study.

“I love the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project! Once you master the regular workflow you can dive much deeper into the subject,” Kiwy said.

“If you’re a person who is curious and not afraid to learn something new, this might be the right thing for you.”

Chris Davis, the NSF’s Program Director for NOIRLab, added that “this amazing result clearly demonstrates that NOIRLab’s data archive has a reach far beyond that of professional astronomers.”

“Keen members of the public can also participate in cutting-edge research and directly share in the joy of cosmic discovery!”

In addition to being a great example of citizen science, these discoveries could help astronomers figure out if brown dwarfs are more like oversized planets or undersized stars. They could also help them understand how star systems change over time.

It also shows the outstanding contributions made to astronomy by researchers who continue to use astronomical databases and science platforms like NOIRLab’s Astro Data Archive and Astro Data Lab at the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC).

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