Citizen Science

An Investigation of New Brown Dwarf Spectral Binary Candidates From the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 Citizen Science Initiative

By Keith Cowing

Status Report

astro-ph.SR

November 18, 2023

Filed under astro-ph.SR, astronomy, Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, brown dwarf, citizen science, CWISE J072708.09−360729.2, CWISE J103604.84−514424.4, CWISE J134446.62−732053.9, exoplanet

An Investigation of New Brown Dwarf Spectral Binary Candidates From the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 Citizen Science Initiative — Observed SOAR/TripleSpec4.1 spectra for W0727−3607 (top), W1036−5144 (middle), and W1344−7320 (bottom), with gray lines showing the full resolution and black lines showing the spectra smoothed to the resolution of the standards and binary templates (R≈150) according to their parallax-based absolute fluxes. The left-hand column depicts the best-fitting single standards (orange line) for the spectra of the three candidates while the right-hand column shows both the binary template (orange line) and the standard spectra that compose it (purple line for primary, blue line for secondary). Reduced χ 2 ν values are reported for each of the fits. — astro-ph.SR

We present three new brown dwarf spectral binary candidates: CWISE J072708.09−360729.2, CWISE J103604.84−514424.4, and CWISE J134446.62−732053.9, discovered by citizen scientists through the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project.

Follow-up near-infrared spectroscopy shows that each of these objects is poorly fit by a single near-infrared standard. We constructed binary templates and found significantly better fits, with component types of L7+T4 for CWISE J072708.09−360729.2, L7+T4 for CWISE J103604.84−514424.4, and L7+T7 for CWISE J134446.62−732053.9. However, further investigation of available spectroscopic indices for evidence of binarity and large amplitude variability suggests that CWISE J072708.09−360729.2 may instead be a strong variability candidate. Our analysis offers tentative evidence and characterization of these peculiar brown dwarf sources, emphasizing their value as promising targets for future high-resolution imaging or photometric variability studies.

Alexia Bravo, Adam C. Schneider, Daniella Bardalez Gagliuffi, Adam J. Burgasser, Aaron M. Meisner, J. Davy Kirkpatrick, Jacqueline K. Faherty, Marc J. Kuchner, Dan Caselden, Arttu Sainio, Les Hamlet, The Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 Collaboration

Comments: Accepted to the Astronomical Journal
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2310.06957 [astro-ph.SR] (or arXiv:2310.06957v1 [astro-ph.SR] for this version)
Submission history
From: Alexia Bravo
[v1] Tue, 10 Oct 2023 19:20:02 UTC (988 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.06957
Astrobiology,

Keith Cowing

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻

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