Rare cataclysmic exploding star spotted by citizen scientists

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Rare cataclysmic exploding star spotted by citizen scientists

Two years ago, a team of astronomers asked for help from scientific citizens from around the world for the Kilonova Seechers project. Launched in July 2023, The Endeavour Tasks Volunteers with the analysis of the survey images all caught daily by telescopes on the opposite sides of the planet known as an optical transitional observer with gravitational waves (Goto).

In six months, more than 2,000 volunteers from Kilonova Seekers contributed more than 600,000 classifications to researchers, which led to a total of 20 new discoveries. Now astronomers have announced the first published discovery of the project in Astronomy and astrophysics: A brilliant explosive star observed in almost real time. Now known as Goto0650, astronomers have determined that the cosmic body is a variable cataclysmic star – the one whose brightness has increased by 2,500 times in just two days.

Animation of the Goto0650 shine, made from Goto’s all-ciel inquiry images. Credit: Goto, T. Killelestein, University of Warwick and K. Ulaczyk

A variable cataclysmic star is not technically one object. Instead, it is a compact binary system made up of a white dwarf flight material to a donor star nearby. Sometimes this question reaches a critical temperature and density inside the gas disc surrounding white dwarf, causing a blinding explosion of light and energy.

According to the codirige of the Kilonova Seechers project and the astronomer of the University of Warwick, Tom Killiestein, the discovery could easily have been missed among the many other objects of the night sky without the help of the citizens of scientists.

“Remarkably, the public volunteers identified this star as an object of interest within 3.5 hours of the image taken by the Goto telescopes,” said Killestein in a press release, adding that the involvement of volunteers “did not stop there.”

“There was a huge public follow-up response,” he continued. “It was reported for other observations of the observatories of the SWIFT and Einstein probe space, and Goto0650 was shiny enough for amateur astronomers to be able to make high quality observations with their own equipment, which formed a key part of the paper and really [helped] We understand the object.

The discovery image that the Kilonova Seekers Volunteers saw Goto0650 for the first time when he entered the brilliance. Science, reference and difference images are shown: the "science" image taken in the night of discovery, the "reference" image taken a few months earlier in the best conditions in the sky, and the "difference" Image that uses an algorithm to subtract all objects that have not changed brightness between science and reference. The very brilliant star in the images of science and the difference is the object itself - it cleard an approximately a 2500x factor. Discovery Image Credit: Goto, T. Killelestein, University of Warwick — The discovery image that the Kilonova Seekers Volunteers saw Goto0650 for the first time when he entered the brilliance. The images of science, reference and difference are shown: the “science” image taken in the night of discovery, the “reference” image taken a few months before in the best conditions in the sky and the “difference” image which uses an algorithm to subtract all the objects which have not changed light between science and the reference. The very brilliant star in the images of science and the difference is the object itself – it cleard an approximately a 2500x factor. Discovery Image Credit: Goto, T. Killelestein, University of Warwick

Thanks to the rapid response of volunteers, astronomers had enough time to collect a set of data in particular on the star which included x -ray, UV and spectroscopy measurements as well as visual observations of amateur astronomers. From these, it seems that Goto0650 is what is called a “period bouncer”, a variable cataclysmic star rarely identified in his final state.

Goto0650 is an exciting discovery for professional space observers, but for Kilonova researchers every day like Svetoslav Alexandrov in Bulgaria, that’s something else.

“Trafficking in Sofia, in Bulgaria, is always horrible during the mornings, so I have to spend time on the bus in one way or another, and contributing to the science of citizens is a great way to do so,” he said, adding that he “literally cried out with joy” when he learned that his inactive stars search would lead to a research copy.

“I am sure that people in the street have raised their eyebrows when they saw me scream and dance, but I didn’t care,” said Alexandrov. “I knew that I am a co-adurator of something important, and that was all that intended.”