Weird Object Careening Across the Cosmos at Ludicrous Speeds
Citizen scientists discovered CWISE J1249, a fast-moving celestial object traveling at one million miles per hour, possibly a small star or brown dwarf, with low metal content indicating ancient origins.
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Citizen scientists have discovered a fast-moving celestial object named CWISE J1249, which is traveling at approximately one million miles per hour through the Milky Way. The discovery was made by Tom Bickle, Martin Kabatnik, and Austin Rothermich while participating in the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project, where volunteers analyze images from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The object is believed to be either a small star or a brown dwarf, and its unique trajectory suggests it may eventually escape the Milky Way's gravitational pull. Notably, CWISE J1249 has a lower metal content than typical stars, indicating it could be an ancient object from the early Milky Way. Researchers speculate that its high speed may result from interactions with a supernova or a close encounter with black holes. The findings have been documented in a pre-print paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, and the citizen scientists involved are credited as authors of the study.
- CWISE J1249 is moving at about one million miles per hour.
- The object may be a small star or a brown dwarf with unique properties.
- Its low metal content suggests it could be an ancient celestial object.
- The discovery was made by citizen scientists using data from NASA's WISE.
- The object may eventually escape the Milky Way due to its trajectory.
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4 commentsJust don't try to land on it right away!
I'm still impressed the amount of data that can be gleaned from these images from this type of processing. Each time someone comes up with a novel idea, they no longer need to build a telescope and capture the data. They just pull down the data that already exists, and apply the "new" to it. You don't even have to change your hours to live like a vampire to do it.
This would be a good use of CV/ML type of "AI" that I can get onboard with vs the write my email for me type of wasted electrons.
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