MIT: Citizen Scientists Spot Closest Young Brown Dwarf Disk Yet

Find out the latest thinking about our universe.
Post Reply
User avatar
bystander
Apathetic Retiree
Posts: 21571
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
Location: Oklahoma

MIT: Citizen Scientists Spot Closest Young Brown Dwarf Disk Yet

Post by bystander » Wed Jun 03, 2020 4:11 pm

Citizen Scientists Spot Closest Young Brown Dwarf Disk Yet
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 2020 Jun 02

Discovery made through the Disk Detective project could help the search for new planets.

Brown dwarfs are the middle child of astronomy, too big to be a planet yet not big enough to be a star. Like their stellar siblings, these objects form from the gravitational collapse of gas and dust. But rather than condensing into a star’s fiery hot nuclear core, brown dwarfs find a more zen-like equilibrium, somehow reaching a stable, milder state compared to fusion-powered stars.

Brown dwarfs are considered to be the missing link between the most massive gas giant planets and the smallest stars, and because they glow relatively dimly they have been difficult to spot in the night sky. Like stars, some brown dwarfs can retain the disk of swirling gas and dust left over from their initial formation. This material can collide and accumulate to form planets, though it’s unclear exactly what kind of planets brown dwarfs can generate.

Now researchers at MIT, the University of Oklahoma, and elsewhere, with the help of citizen scientists, have identified a brown dwarf with a disk that is the youngest of its kind within about 100 parsecs of Earth. The brown dwarf, named W1200-7845, appears to have the kind of disk that could potentially form planets. It is about 3.7 million years old and sits at a nearby 102 parsecs, or about 332 light years from Earth. ...

The new system was discovered through Disk Detective, a crowdsourced project funded by NASA and hosted by Zooniverse that provides images of objects in space for the public to classify, with the aim of picking out objects that are likely stars with disks that could potentially host planets. ...

Findings on Young, Nearby Brown Dwarf With a Disk
University of Oklahoma | 2020 Jun 02
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

Post Reply