NASA Citizen Scientists Spot Object Moving 1M Miles per Hour
Citizen scientists discovered CWISE J124909.08+362116.0, a hypervelocity object moving at 1 million miles per hour, potentially escaping the Milky Way. Its ancient characteristics were confirmed through collaborative research.
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Citizen scientists participating in NASA's Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project have discovered a hypervelocity object, CWISE J124909.08+362116.0, moving at approximately 1 million miles per hour, which is set to escape the Milky Way's gravitational pull. This object, with a mass comparable to or less than that of a small star, is unique as it is the first of its kind identified to be on a trajectory out of the galaxy. The discovery was made using images from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Explorer (WISE) mission, which mapped the sky in infrared light from 2009 to 2011. Follow-up observations confirmed the object's characteristics, revealing it has a low metallic composition, suggesting it may be ancient, possibly originating from one of the galaxy's first star generations. The object may have been ejected from a binary system involving a white dwarf that exploded or from a globular cluster due to interactions with black holes. The collaborative effort involved citizen scientists, professionals, and students, highlighting the significant role of public participation in astronomical discoveries. The study detailing this finding has been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
- Citizen scientists discovered a hypervelocity object moving at 1 million miles per hour.
- The object, CWISE J1249, may escape the Milky Way and is possibly ancient.
- It has a low mass and unusual metallic composition, complicating its classification.
- The discovery involved collaboration among volunteers, professionals, and students.
- The study has been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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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.
12 commentsThat's ~450 km/s, or 0.15% c.
Importantly it's also the first object discovered by this project that's unbounded to the Milky Way. Like ʻOumuamua in relation to the Solar system, it exceeds the escape velocity and will never return to the Milky Way.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/the-fastest-man-made-o...
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021A%26A...649A.136K/abst...
The authors of that study cited above are pretty confident it's above 497 +/- 8 km/s, at least in the solar neighborhood.
1M Miles per hour works out to 446 km/s. Granted these are all rough numbers, and it depends exactly where you are in the Milky Way, but it looks like it may be a bit short of actually escaping.
[1] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=%28diameter+of+Milky+Wa...
However some of the problems is that it's not really recognized (yet) by academia and governments and thus also not adequately funded.
It would be great if there is a more systematic approach to citizen science but only in astronomy but also global challenges like climate change and biodiversity.
(I don’t think it works with a brown dwarf.)
"Not far now."
"Good, good, good..."
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