Collaborative Research: Backyard Worlds - Characterizing Our Nearest Neighbors Through Citizen Science

褐矮星是像恒星一样形成的物体，但质量不够大，不足以发出星光。最近的发现表明，在太阳附近有一群未被发现的棕矮星和流氓行星。后院世界：行星9公民科学项目(BYW)利用广域红外探测探测器的红外图像，与来自世界各地的志愿者接触，以识别太阳附近被忽视的棕矮星。超过15万名志愿者已经为BYW项目做出了贡献，确认了1600多颗以前不为人知的棕矮星。该团队将利用这个通过BYW项目发现的棕矮星候选者宝库，为详细的个人研究确定天体物理学感兴趣的来源。该团队还将扩大BYW项目的范围，创建基于BYW科学案例和调查策略的教育材料，用于美国自然历史博物馆并向公众提供。该项目将支持一个强有力的地面后续计划，以补充后院世界(BYW)档案研究项目。通过光度学和光谱学的结合，研究小组将观察到一系列优先考虑的褐矮星候选恒星，以便进行进一步分析。这些观测将允许对新的奇异天体(例如，极端寒冷的棕矮星、共同移动的伙伴)进行详细的单独研究，以确定它们的物理参数(例如，有效温度、年龄、大约距离)，并将提供更准确地确定本地棕矮星空间密度所需的数据。这些努力将利用公民科学家的辛勤工作，以确定最近的、最佳的棕矮星作为目标，用于即将到来的詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜和地面极大望远镜(ELT)的详细描述。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Brown dwarfs are objects that form like stars, but are not massive enough to shine with starlight. Recent discoveries point to an undiscovered population of brown dwarfs and rogue planets in the solar neighborhood. The Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 citizen science project (BYW) engages with volunteers from around the world using infrared images from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer to identify overlooked brown dwarfs in the immediate vicinity of the Sun. Over 150,000 volunteers have already contributed to the BYW project, identifying more than 1600 previously unknown brown dwarfs. The team will use this treasure trove of brown dwarf candidates uncovered through the BYW project to identify astrophysically interesting sources for detailed individual studies. The team will also extend the reach of the BYW project by creating educational materials based around the BYW science case and investigation strategy to be employed at the American Museum of Natural History and made available to the public.This project will support a robust ground-based follow-up program to complement the Backyard Worlds (BYW) archival research project. Through a combination of photometry and spectroscopy, the team will observe an array of high-priority brown dwarf candidates for further analysis. These observations will allow for detailed individual studies of new exotic objects (e.g., extremely cold brown dwarfs, co-moving companions) to determine their physical parameters (e.g., effective temperatures, ages, approximate distances) and will provide the data needed for a more accurate determination of the local brown dwarf space density. These efforts will leverage the hard work of citizen scientists to identify the nearest, optimal brown dwarfs as targets for detailed characterizations with the forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope and ground-based extremely large telescopes (ELTs).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.