The Adler Planetarium

What Are the Sun S Nearest Neighbors? How Are Planets Related to Brown Dwarfs (BDS)? Microlensing Surveys (moa&ogle Collaborations 2011) Statistical Studies of the Star-tobrown- Dwarf Ratio (bihain&scholz 2016) and Recent Discoveries of Ultracool Brown Dwarfs (kirkpatrick Et Al. 2014; Luhman 2014; Luhman 2013B) Point to an Undiscovered Population of Brown Dwarfs and Rogue Planets in the Solar Neighborhood. Finding New Examples of Such Objects Reveals the Low-mass End of the Substellar Mass Function (allen Et Al. 2005; Lodieu Et Al. 2017) Informing Theories of Star and Planet Formation. Spectroscopy of These Nearby Objects Yields Unique New Tests for Atmospheric Models (morley Et Al. 2012) With Implications for Exoplanets (beichman Et Al. 2014) and Solar System Planets (skemer Et Al. 2016). Nasa S Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (wise; Wright Et Al. 2010) Serves as a Powerful Tool for Finding Nearby Ultracool Brown Dwarfs (kirkpatrick Et Al. 2011; Mace Et Al. 2013; Schneider Et Al. 2017). Wise Surveyed the Whole Sky Simultaneously in Four Bands With Central Wavelengths of 3.4 4.6 12 and 22 M (called W1 W2 W3 and W4) Beginning in January 2010 With the Sensitivity to Detect a 250 K Brown Dwarf TO>6 PC and Even a Jupiter Analog Orbiting the Sun TO>0.6 PC. the Whole Wise Catalog Contains Over 747 Million Sources of All Kinds (cutri Et Al. 2013). This Massive Archive Serves as a Crucial Precursor Survey for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to Be Launched in October 2018. However Searches for Objects With Large Space Motions in Wise Data Have Yet to Take Advantage of the Full Depth and Time Baseline of the Wise Images. the Limiting Magnitudes of the Wise All-sky Catalog Are Approximately W1=16.6 and W2=16.0. Yet Proper Motion Surveys (schneider Et Al. 2016) So Far Have Generally Been Limited to Objects With W2 MAGNITUDE<14.5. Furthermore Wise Has Continued to Scan the Sky in the W1 and W2 Bands Through the Near Earth Object Wise-reactivation (neowiser) Project. Neowiser Imaging That Has Already Been Released Increases the Time Baseline Available in the W1 and W2 Bands by a Factor ~10; This Time Baseline Has Not Been Fully Exploited in Published BD Searches. to Efficiently Scour This Unexplored Discovery Space We Have Launched a New Citizen Science Website Backyardworlds.org (kuchner Et Al. 2017). This Website Part of the Zooniverse Citizen Science Community Together With Galaxy Zoo Planet Hunters and Many Other Flagship Citizen Science Projects (see Http://www.zooniverse.org) Engages Layperson Volunteers to Examine Images From Wise to Look for High-proper Motion Objects. This Approach Will Unleash the Full Power of the Wise Archive for Detecting Nearby Brown Dwarfs Revealing Objects Professional Scientists Would Otherwise Likely Not Spot for Many Years. We Estimate That Backyardworlds.org Will YIELD>1000 Objects That Demand Publication and That Our Candidates Will Roughly Double the Sample of Known Brown Dwarfs Cooler Than Spectral Type L5. With This Proposal We Seek Funds for Scientists to Sustain and Improve the Preliminary Backyardworlds.org Citizen Science Website Analyze the Results and Deliver Them to the Community and Exploit the Output for Science. Backyardworlds.org Launched on February 15 2017 Has Already Received Over 3.6 Million Classifications From ~104 000 Volunteers Worldwide and Already Discovered 13 BD Candidates. Our Efforts Will Leverage the Hard Work of These Citizen Scientists at Minimal Cost to Nasa While Cementing the Worldwide Legacy of the Wise Archive Just in Time for Follow-up of the Nearby Ultracool Objects We Find With JWST Whose Mid-infrared Sensitivity Will Be Required for High Signal-to-noise Spectra of the Coldest BDS.