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User:Meli thev

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I was an astronomy volunteer and I am a co-author of multiple publications. My research area involved brown dwarfs, infrared transient events, debris around white dwarfs and occasionally active supermassive black holes.

Community Science

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In 2018 to 2021 I was doing volunteer work for various projects on Zooniverse. I began with the project Higgs Hunters, but then I became more focused on astronomy and became a moderator for the Milky Way Project.[1] I then made my first discoveries, most notably I did co-discover the infrared excess around the white dwarf star LSPM J0207+3331.[2][3]

I also discovered a number of brown dwarfs in the backyard worlds project. I co-disovered several M, L, T and Y-dwarfs. These include:

  • the Y-dwarf candidate CWISE J1531−3306[4] (other co-discovers: Samuel J. Goodman & Arttu Sainio)
  • the L-type binary CWISE J0146−0508AB[5] (other co-discovers: Nikolaj Stevnbak, Sam Goodman, Dan Caselden, and Frank Kiwy)
  • I co-discovered 3 M+T binaries: L26−16AB, UCAC4 307−069397AB & LP 81−30AB (see other co-discoverers in the citation).[6]

I also worked on transient events seen in mid-infrared by the NEOWISE mission, mostly supernovae. This includes the identification of ASASSN−18ap as a possible Tidal Disruption Event,[7][8] which was later studied in detail by Wang et al.[9] Another variable object related discovery is the discovery of a bright explosion around IRAS 07572−3100, accompanied by the appearance of a new nebula in the optical and near-infrared.[10] This transient was later independently discovered by another team and observed by Lynne Hillenbrand with the Keck Observatory.[11]

I also identified dusty tails coming from low-mass stars in several star-forming regions, which is seen as a sign of photoevaporation.[12][13] I am one of the galaxy zoo volunteers that did actively search for Voorwerpjes.[14]

List of planetary-mass objects

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I maintain a list of free-floating planetary-mass objects, which I collected from the literature. These are objects with a mass below 13 jupiter masses and are not orbiting a star, brown dwarf or stellar remnant. I called the website that hosts this list "Isolated Planets Archive" and it contains over 400 objects and candidates.[15]

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Creating images

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I consider it more of a hobby to create images and gifs out of astronomical data and satellite images. Such as an asteroid in front of the crab nebula.[16][17]

A comparison between AllWISE atlas images (left) and unWISE coadds (right). The image shows the star forming region IC 1590. An image I did create for wikipedia

NGC objects and other catalogues

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I created images of NGC objects between May 2023 and December 2023. I mostly created images for objects that did not have any images or only had old images from the DSS/DSS2 surveys on wikimedia commons. This way I created more than 1000 images. I also created images for RCW and Barnard catalogues. Sometimes I am working on images for the IC objects. Most images were created with DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys data, but for some I used data from the Hubble Space Telescope. The software I used was mostly SAO Image DS9 and Adobe Photoshop Elements.

NGC 5078 IC 879
NGC 5078 and IC 879
Barnard 252
Barnard 252
Example images created with data from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys

Wikipedia edits

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I mostly edit wikipedia pages that already exist. And sometimes I create a new wikipedia article, such as

References

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  1. Jayasinghe, Tharindu (2019-09-01). "The Milky Way Project second data release: bubbles and bow shocks". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 488: 1141–1165. DOI:10.1093/mnras/stz1738. ISSN 0035-8711.
  2. Debes, John H. (2019-02-19). "A 3 Gyr White Dwarf with Warm Dust Discovered via the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 Citizen Science Project". The Astrophysical Journal 872 (2): L25. DOI:10.3847/2041-8213/ab0426. ISSN 2041-8213.
  3. Garner, Rob (2019-02-19). Citizen Scientist Finds Ancient White Dwarf Star With Puzzling Rings. NASA. Retrieved on 2019-12-27.
  4. Kirkpatrick, J. Davy (2021-03-01). "The Field Substellar Mass Function Based on the Full-sky 20 pc Census of 525 L, T, and Y Dwarfs". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 253: 7. DOI:10.3847/1538-4365/abd107. ISSN 0067-0049.
  5. Softich, Emma (2022-02-01). "CWISE J014611.20-050850.0AB: The Widest Known Brown Dwarf Binary in the Field". The Astrophysical Journal Letters 926 (2): L12. DOI:10.3847/2041-8213/ac51d8. ISSN 2041-8205.
  6. Marocco, Federico (2024-06-01). "Thirteen New M Dwarf + T Dwarf Pairs Identified with WISE/NEOWISE". The Astrophysical Journal 967: 147. DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/ad3f1d. ISSN 0004-637X.
  7. Thévenot, Melina (2020-12-01). "Mid-Infrared Detections of SNe II with NEOWISE". Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society 4: 243. DOI:10.3847/2515-5172/abd415. ISSN 2515-5172.
  8. Thévenot, Melina (2021-03-01). "Mid-infrared Detections of Type I Supernovae and Unclassified Possible Supernovae with NEOWISE". Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society 5: 58. DOI:10.3847/2515-5172/abf120. ISSN 2515-5172.
  9. Wang, Yibo (2024-05-01). "ASASSN-18ap: A Dusty Tidal Disruption Event Candidate with an Early Bump in the Light Curve". The Astrophysical Journal 966: 136. DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/ad2ae4. ISSN 0004-637X.
  10. Thévenot, Melina (2020-12-01). "Appearance of a New Nebula in the Constellation Puppis after an Outburst in 2015 around WISEA J075915.26-310844.6". Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society 4: 242. DOI:10.3847/2515-5172/abd40e. ISSN 2515-5172.
  11. Hillenbrand, Lynne (2021-02-01). "IRAS 07572-3100 and the New Nebula in Puppis: Outburst from a Young Stellar Object or an Exotic AGB Star Event?". The Astronomer's Telegram 14416: 1.
  12. Thévenot, Melina (2019-07-01). "Photoevaporation of Two Proplyds in the Star Cluster Collinder 69 Discovered with Spitzer MIPS". Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society 3: 95. DOI:10.3847/2515-5172/ab30c5. ISSN 2515-5172.
  13. Thévenot, Melina (2020-01-01). "Cometary Tails as a Sign of Disk Photoevaporation in NGC 6193". Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society 4: 15. DOI:10.3847/2515-5172/ab701d. ISSN 2515-5172.
  14. Keel, William (2024-02-01). "The 2nd Galaxy Zoo search for distant EELRs around extant and fading AGN: 40 new Voorwerpjes". American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #243 243: 175.08.
  15. Isolated planets archive (in en). Isolated planets archive. Retrieved on 2024-08-01.
  16. Foreground asteroid passing the Crab Nebula (in en). www.esa.int. Retrieved on 2019-12-27.
  17. information@eso.org. Asteroid in the Crab Nebula (M1) (in en). www.spacetelescope.org. Retrieved on 2019-12-27.
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