Cosmoview
How complete is our census of the Sun’s closest neighbors? Astronomers using NSF’s NOIRLab facilities and a team of data-sleuthing volunteers participating in Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, a citizen science project, have discovered roughly 100 cool worlds near the Sun — objects more massive than planets but lighter than stars, known as brown dwarfs. Several of these newly discovered worlds are among the very coolest known, with a few approaching the temperature of Earth — cool enough to harbor water clouds.
Credit:NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld/A. Meisner, Jonathan Gagné (Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium), Jacqueline Faherty (American Museum of Natural History)
About the Video
Id: | noirlab2020d |
Release date: | Aug. 18, 2020, 8:28 a.m. |
Related releases: | noirlab2020 |
Duration: | 01 m 00 s |
Frame rate: | 29.97 |
About the Object
Name: | Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope |
Category: | Star Clusters |