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- Written by: NASA Science Editorial Team
Most familiar stars peacefully orbit the center of the Milky Way. But citizen scientists working on NASA’s Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project have helped discover an object moving so fast that it will escape the Milky Way’s gravity and shoot into intergalactic space. This hypervelocity object is the first such object found with the mass similar to or less than that of a small star.
Backyard Worlds uses images from NASA’s WISE, or Wide-field Infrared Explorer, mission, which mapped the sky in infrared light from 2009 to 2011. It was reactivated as NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) in 2013 and retired on Aug. 8, 2024.
A few years ago, longtime Backyard Worlds citizen scientists Martin Kabatnik, Thomas P. Bickle, and Dan Caselden spotted a faint, fast-moving object called CWISE J124909.08+362116.0, marching across their screens in the WISE images.
Follow-up observations with several ground-based telescopes helped scientists confirm the discovery and characterize the object. These citizen scientists are now co-authors on the team’s study about this discovery published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters (a pre-print version is available here).
“I can't describe the level of excitement,” said Kabatnik, a citizen scientist from Nuremberg, Germany. “When I first saw how fast it was moving, I was convinced it must have been reported already.”
CWISE J1249 is zooming out of the Milky Way at about 1 million miles per hour. But it also stands out for its low mass, which makes it difficult to classify as a celestial object. It could be a low-mass star, or if it doesn’t steadily fuse hydrogen in its core, it would be considered a brown dwarf, putting it somewhere between a gas giant planet and a star.
Ordinary brown dwarfs are not that rare. Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 volunteers have discovered more than 4,000 of them! But none of the others are known to be on their way out of the galaxy.
This new object has yet another unique property. Data obtained with the W. M. Keck Observatory in Maunakea, Hawaii, show that it has much less iron and other metals than other stars and brown dwarfs. This unusual composition suggests that CWISE J1249 is quite old, likely from one of the first generations of stars in our galaxy.
Why does this object move at such high speed? One hypothesis is that CWISE J1249 originally came from a binary system with a white dwarf, which exploded as a supernova when it pulled off too much material from its companion. Another possibility is that it came from a tightly bound cluster of stars called a globular cluster, and a chance meeting with a pair of black holes sent it soaring away.
“When a star encounters a black hole binary, the complex dynamics of this three-body interaction can toss that star right out of the globular cluster,” says Kyle Kremer, incoming assistant professor in UC San Diego’s Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Scientists will look more closely at the elemental composition of CWISE J1249 for clues about which of these scenarios is more likely.
This discovery has been a team effort on multiple levels—a collaboration involving volunteers, professionals, and students. Kabatnik credits other citizen scientists with helping him search, including Melina Thévenot, who “blew my mind with her personal blog about doing searches using Astronomical Data Query Language,” he said. Software written by citizen scientist Frank Kiwy was also instrumental in this finding, he said.
The study is led by Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 science team member Adam Burgasser, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, and includes co-authors Hunter Brooks and Austin Rothermich, astronomy students who both began their astronomy careers as citizen scientists.
Become a citizen scientist
Want to help discover the next extraordinary space object? Join the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 now — participation is open to anyone in any country worldwide.
Podcast
Check out this NASA’s Curious Universe podcast episode to hear personal stories from citizen scientists engaged NASA-related projects.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
At its Aug. 6 meeting, the council approved the South Main Street Pavement Maintenance Project’s plans, specifications and working details, and awarded the construction contract to Granite Construction Co.
Public Works Director Ron Ladd’s written report to the council said the project improves roadway conditions on South Main Street from Lakeport Boulevard to First Street.
He said the project’s components include pavement repairs and markings, surfacing, utility adjustments and rapid flashing beacons.
“The contract award will allow the City to proceed with the necessary pavement maintenance, enhancing road and pedestrian safety, improving traffic flow, and extending the lifespan of the roadway infrastructure,” Ladd wrote.
Ladd told the council on Aug. 6 that the seven bids the city received for the project were opened on July 8, with Granite Construction coming in with the lowest bid, $1,105,885.25. The city engineer had estimated the project at $1.2 million.
“They were really tight bids and we were happy to see that they were a little bit under our engineer’s estimate,” Ladd said.
“We are excited to move this project forward,” Ladd added.
He said it’s being funded with American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, funds that the City Council had previously approved for this project.
“We already have some of the improvements in progress that are separate from the ARPA funds,” said Ladd, explaining that all of the components will go together as one cohesive project when both projects are complete.
“This is a really big deal for us,” City Manager Kevin Ingram told the council.
Originally, the city had broken the project up into three pieces, but the ARPA funding is allowing them to address it altogether, which is much more cost effective, Ingram said. In context, it kickstarts other projects, and along with a large water and wastewater replacement project that’s in the works will provide noticeable improvement for the city’s roadway system.
He said the city is seeking the community’s forgiveness because they are going “to make a little bit of a mess” as the projects move forward, especially when they dig into the road to replace the water and sewer mains for the upcoming water and wastewater replacement project.
Connected to the South Main Street pavement project is a sidewalk improvement project, which Ingram said will put another half million dollars into pedestrian improvements and result in continuous sidewalks along that corridor.
Ingram said the city received public comment about not including a bike lane, and he said the issues with a bike lane and rehabilitation are not mutually exclusive. “I would argue that this project does put us closer to having that wider conversation.”
He said establishing a bike lane needs to be part of a larger kind of community outreach process, because “we only have a limited amount of real estate there on the road.”
Mayor Michael Froio asked Ladd if the city would have to remove the center turn lane on South Main Street if bike lanes were installed.
Ladd said there are several options. “Removing the center lane would be one of them.”
He said the city is in the middle of an active transportation plan that is going to give design alternatives not only on that segment of South Main but for the entire corridor.
“We're not going in and buying anything. We're stuck with what we have,” as far as the amount of space on the road, Froio said.
Ladd pointed out that the right of way acquisition for this project was incredibly small and yet took several months to complete.
“I'm confident we're gonna get there,” said Ingram. “And it's going to be better by having it looked at from a whole corridor perspective rather than just these ones.”
He added that if the city made any rash decisions on adding bike lanes, “and did anything crazy like limiting parking, this room would still be full.”
Ingram said there is a lot of money available now for bike and pedestrian improvements, and the city plans to capitalize on that.
Froio said that the project is not repaving but a pavement maintenance project, and he asked Ladd to explain the difference.
Ladd said a complete reconstruct would go several feet into the base throughout the entire span of the paving. This project is more of a “mill and fill” with specific dig outs that go deeper into the road base in specific areas.
He said it’s an almost identical project to one they did on North Main between Fourth Street and Clear Lake Avenue a couple of years ago.
Councilman Brandon Disney moved to approve the project, with Councilman Kenny Parlet seconding and the council approving the motion 5-0.
In other business at the Aug. 6 meeting, the council honored retiring Police Chief Brad Rasmussen, who then administered the oath of office to his successor, Dale Stoebe. The article on that event is here.
The council also approved an ordinance amending the municipal code to create a ministerial approval process for lot line adjustments, adopted the resolution to confirm and approve the utility billing delinquency list, also directing staff to submit the list to the County Auditor-Controller’s Office for inclusion on the property tax roll.
Froio was appointed the council’s delegate for the League of California Cities Annual Conference to be held Oct. 16 to 18, with Costa the first alternate and Disney the second.
Following council communications, in which Parlet gave a nearly 10-minute statement on COVID-19 being a hoax, the council went into closed session to discuss labor negotiations and an existing opioid lawsuit.
After they emerged, City Attorney David Ruderman announced that there was no reportable action on the labor negotiations. However, on the issue of the city’s existing litigation against Amerisourcebergen Drug Corp., staff was given direction to seek leave to amend the complaint to name an additional defendant, Indivior Inc., relating to the company’s involvement in marketing and distributing opioids.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
On Aug. 8 at approximately 11:45 p.m., deputies responded to the 9000 block of Salmina Road in Kelseyville for reports of a possible domestic violence incident and possible gunshots heard in the area, the sheriff’s office reported.
Upon arriving, deputies located three male subjects, with one of the male subjects on the ground, officials said.
Authorities have so far not released the names of those involved.
The sheriff’s office said the deputies secured the area and began rendering aid to the subject on the ground, who was suffering from a gunshot wound to the leg.
The initial investigation revealed that two of the three male subjects were in a physical fight due to the alleged domestic violence occurring, and one of the subjects possessed a firearm. During the fight, the handgun went off, striking one of the subjects in the leg.
The injured subject was taken to an out-of-county hospital for treatment and has subsequently been released. The injured subject is believed to be the suspect in this case, the sheriff’s office said.
The other two subjects were not arrested and were believed to be acting in self-defense, according to the sheriff’s office report.
The sheriff’s office said its Thursday report on the incident is based on a preliminary and ongoing investigation.
“The department's understanding of the facts and circumstances may change as additional evidence is collected and analyzed,” the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office said it submitted the case to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office for review of criminal charges.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new, first-in-the-nation proposal to further prevent price spikes and save Californians money.
The proposal would authorize the California Energy Commission, or CEC, to require that petroleum refiners maintain a minimum fuel reserve to avoid supply shortages that create higher prices for consumers.
If this proposal had been in effect in 2023, Californians would’ve saved upwards of $650 million in gas costs due to refiners’ price spikes.
The CEC also found that, in 2023, there were 63 days of California refiners maintaining less than 15 days of gas supply — driving up prices. This proposal would help ensure that the industry behaves responsibly and plans ahead to protect consumers from price spikes.
“Price spikes at the pump are profit spikes for Big Oil. Refiners should be required to plan ahead and backfill supplies to keep prices stable, instead of playing games to earn even more profits. By making refiners act responsibly and maintain a gas reserve, Californians would save money at the pump every year,” Newsom said.
The state’s new oil and gas accountability tools have helped mitigate price spikes and held Big Oil accountable, with prices significantly lower than at this time last year and the year before.
This summer, Californians spent an estimated $728 million less on gasoline than the same period last year. Thursday’s announced proposal would further protect consumers at the pump and help stabilize the market for the long-term.
“The data is clear: oil refiners have been racking up profits by planning maintenance that reduces supply during our busy driving seasons. The Governor’s proposal gives us new tools to require refiners to plan responsibly and prevent price gouging during maintenance,” said Tai Milder, director of the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight for the CEC.
What the proposal would do
• Obligate California’s petroleum refiners to demonstrate resupply plans and arrangements to the CEC that are adequate to address the loss in production from refinery maintenance.
• Authorize the CEC to require petroleum refiners to maintain enough fuel inventory to stabilize fuel supply.
• Impose penalties on refiners who fail to follow these requirements.
How we got here
Following gasoline price spikes in 2022, Gov. Newsom called for a special session and signed into law a package of reforms holding Big Oil accountable.
California’s new watchdog found that higher gasoline prices were caused by suspicious market transactions, refinery maintenance without properly preparing for it, and more.
Earlier this year, the watchdog sent Gov. Newsom a letter outlining specific proposals to reform California’s gasoline spot market, which included a minimum inventory requirement to prevent price spikes due to lack of stable supply.
The state’s gasoline price watchdog also found that, in 2023, gasoline prices spiked largely due to refineries going offline without adequately planning to backfill supplies, which caused refining margins to spike as spot and retail prices jumped — indicating that refinery margins made up the largest proportion of the price spikes between July and September 2023.
Other countries have taken similar actions
Australia enacted the Fuel Security Act, which has two major components: a minimum stockholding obligation and a fuel security services payment. Implemented in 2024, the minimum stockholding obligation requires major fuel refiners to hold 24 days of gasoline and 20 days of diesel fuel.
Japan passed the Oil Stockpiling Act to ensure a stable supply of oil, requiring both the government and private sector to maintain reserves of crude oil and other finished petroleum products.
The European Union adopted an Oil Stock Directive that requires EU countries to maintain emergency stocks of crude oil and petroleum products equal to at least 90 days of net imports or 61 days of consumption, whichever is higher.