July 14, 2020

WISEA J181006.18-101000.5

An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports the discovery of two brown dwarfs thanks to the help of citizen scientists who participated in the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 program. Cataloged as WISEA J041451.67-585456.7 and WISEA J181006.18-101000.5, those are two objects with masses that fall within the range typical of brown dwarfs but with other characteristics more similar to those of gas giant planets. They could be the first extreme T-type subdwarfs, and resemble ancient exoplanets, with very little iron, having an estimated age of around 10 billion years. Their characteristics make them useful to better understand exoplanets.