Imagine looking up at the starry sky and discovering an object hurtling along at over a million kilometers per hour, so fast that it leaves our galaxy and dive into interstellar space. This is not a piece of fantasy, but a reality that emerged thanks to the joint efforts of amateur and professional scientists.
The discovery of the year
The mysterious object, nicknamed CWISE J124909.08+362116.0was captured by telescopes of theNASA and identified by the project “Backyard Worlds: Planet 9″, an initiative involving enthusiasts and scholars in the search for planets and brown dwarfs beyond the orbit of NeptunePublished in the magazine Astrophysical Journal Lettersthis discovery represents a notable success of the Citizen Science.
This enigmatic celestial body, with a mass similar to that of a small star, has shown a speed that will lead it to leave the Milky Way. The images that allowed this discovery were captured by the telescope Wise from the NASAactive from 2009 to the 2011 and later known as NeoWise until 2024.
The Magic of Citizen Science
The discovery of CWISE J124909.08+362116.0 is the result of the work of Martin Kabatnik, Thomas P. Bickle And Dan Caseldenthree citizen science enthusiasts who spotted the object from their homes. “When I saw how fast it was, I thought someone had already noticed it,” says Kabatnik, who analyzed the images from his home in NurembergGermany.
The predominant hypothesis is that it is a brown dwarfa celestial body with a mass between that of a large planet and a star like the Sun. dwarfs Brown stars are not uncommon, but none of them threaten to leave the Milky Way like this mysterious object.
Mysteries and possible origins
Observations made with the telescope Keck in Hawaii they reveal that CWISE J124909.08+362116.0 contains much less iron than other stars, suggesting that it may be one of the first generations of stars in our galaxy. The reason for its incredible speed remains uncertain: it may have been ejected from a binary system after the explosion of a star as a supernova, or it could have escaped from a globular cluster following an interaction with a black hole.
This discovery is not only a triumph of the science of the citizensbut also a fascinating cosmic mystery that stimulates the our curiosity about the universe. The involvement of enthusiasts and researchers in projects like “Backyard Worlds: Planet 9” demonstrates how powerful and revolutionary the collaboration between professional and amateur science.
Are you curious to find out more about this mysterious object? Follow the updates and participate in Citizen Science projects. Who knows, maybe the next big one discovery space could be arrive thanks to your contribution.
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