Previously described as playing astronomical ‘spot the difference,’ Kilonova Seekers asks the general public to check the most recent images of a bit of night sky to a picture of the identical section of space taken on previous nights. Their goal – to identify recent stars or significant changes in light intensity which will indicate that something remarkable has happened in space.
Published today (July 1) in Astronomy & Astrophysics, the project has announced its first published major discovery – a vivid exploding star.
The item underwent an extreme brightening (increasing by 2500 times) that was not seen when put next to the image taken 2 days earlier. The short response and diligent work of the general public allowed the item to be studied and classified early in its evolution, identifying it as a cataclysmic variable star, and given the name GOTO0650.
Co-lead of Kilonova Seekers, Dr. Tom Killestein, Warwick Prize Fellow within the Astronomy and Astrophysics group, University of Warwick said: “Kilonova Seekers is a novel opportunity for members of the general public to participate in true real-time astrophysics. Remarkably, public volunteers identified this star as an object of interest inside 3 1/2 hours of the image being taken by the GOTO telescopes – this discovery might have been missed amongst many other objects without their efforts.
“The involvement of the volunteers didn’t stop there, as there was an enormous follow-up response from the general public. It was flagged for further observations from the Swift and Einstein Probe space observatories, and GOTO0650 was vivid enough for amateur astronomers to take impressively high-quality observations of with their very own equipment, which formed a key a part of the paper and really helping us understand the item.”
Cataclysmic variable stars sporadically increase in brightness by large amounts before dropping back to normal levels. They’re compact binary star systems, consisting of a white dwarf star stealing matter from its companion donor star. Periodically, material from the donor star hits a critical density and temperature inside the disc of gas that surrounds the white dwarf, which causes an explosive outburst and vivid flashes of sunshine.
The fast response of the general public enabled the team to get an unusually highly complete dataset on the star, including spectroscopy, X-ray, and UV measurements, supplemented by the impressively high-quality observations of the amateur astronomers. These observations suggest it’s a period bouncer, the ultimate state of a cataclysmic variable star, and a rare object to seek out even within the age of widespread wide-field imaging surveys.
Co-lead of Kilonova Seekers, Dr Lisa Kelsey, Leverhulme Early Profession Fellow, Institute of Astronomy and Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Cambridge said: “Citizen science is a robust solution to make novel serendipitous discoveries in vast datasets that might normally should be analysed in depth by scientists.
“With over 2.8 million classifications up to now, the invention of GOTO0650 is admittedly the head of two years of consistent labor from our volunteers. Without the Kilonova Seekers volunteers flagging this object, rapid follow-up wouldn’t have been possible, and this object could have been missed entirely.”
The Kilonova Seekers Project is approaching its two-year anniversary of inviting members of the general public to analyse near real-time data collected from the Warwick-led Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) project. This project takes all-sky survey images of space from two arrays of telescopes situated on opposite sides of the planet — in Spain and Australia.
The vast numbers of observations taken in these imaging surveys will soon be beyond the capability of individual and small teams of scientists to label and validate. Citizen Science is a viable, mutually useful solution to avoid objects like GOTO0650 being missed.
As a shining example of such efforts, Kilonova Seekers has provided over 3,500 members of the general public with the chance to find supernovae and variable stars using real data. With volunteers from all over the world, there is sort of all the time someone online the information in real-time.
Svetoslav Alexandrov, Kilonova Seekers Volunteer based in Bulgaria said: “Traffic in Sofia, Bulgaria, is all the time awful through the mornings so I even have to pass time on the bus by some means, and contributing to citizen science is a superb solution to try this! Kilonova Seekers is on the highest of my list, since it’s mobile-friendly and most significantly, it offers us fresh imagery almost each day.
“I literally screamed with joy after I saw that I used to be going to be a co-author of the research paper. I’m certain that folks on the road raised their eyebrows once they saw me screaming and dancing, but I didn’t care. I knew I’m a co-discoverer of something significant, and this was all that mattered”
Cledison Marcos da Silva, Kilonova Seekers Volunteer based in Brazil said: “This discovery was very necessary to me, as I used to be going through a serious health problem and the citizen science we do at Kilonova Seekers was distracting me from my situation. I never imagined that we might discover such a vivid transient, so it was an enormous surprise, and we were very completely satisfied after we discovered. This discovery shows the importance of citizen science, each scientifically and personally. Even out of your bed, or on the road together with your mobile phone, there’s the potential for making an important discovery.”
Mayahuel Torres-Guerrero, Kilonova Seekers Volunteer based in Mexico said: “The journey from the invention of GOTO0650 to the publication of the paper in Astronomy & Astrophysics has been personally rewarding. I had the chance to learn tips on how to download data from LCO telescopes and to provide light curves that allowed us to observe echo outbursts. It was very exciting when GOTO0650 produced an echo outburst on Christmas Day and Latest 12 months’s Day! It was an excellent journey for somebody who has studied social sciences like me!”
GOTO is a network of telescopes that’s principally funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and operated by the University of Warwick on the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, Spain, and Siding Spring Observatory in NSW, Australia, on behalf of a consortium including the University of Warwick, Monash University, Armagh Observatory & Planetarium, the University of Leicester, the University of Sheffield, the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT), the University of Turku, the University of Portsmouth, the University of Manchester and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC).