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Backyard Worlds: Binaries

Most stars in our Milky Way galaxy exist in groups, including pairs or “binaries,” in which two stars orbit each other. Some binaries are stars paired with brown dwarfs, balls of gas more massive than planets without enough mass to sustain nuclear fusion. Finding brown dwarfs in pairs helps scientists deduce their ages and origin stories! Backyard Worlds: Binaries invites you to search images made by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope to find these vital brown dwarfs in binary systems. Your discoveries will teach us about brown dwarf formation and identify objects that resemble giant planets like Jupiter.

Go to Project Website about Backyard Worlds: Binaries

project task

Examining Images

division

Astrophysics

where

Online

launched

2026

Illustration showing a large, dark red gas‑giant–like world in orbit with a white dwarf shown as a bright white dot. The bright band of the Milky Way stretching across the star‑filled background.
Artist’s rendition of a brown dwarf orbiting a white dwarf (the bright white circle) with the Milky Way in the background.
 NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld

What you’ll do

  • Learn how to recognize binary systems and brown dwarfs in images made by NASA’s WISE space telescope. 
  • Click buttons to indicate whether or not they contain binaries. If you see a binary, click a button to indicate whether or not it includes a brown dwarf. Review as many image sets as you like, 
  • If you want to, you can discuss what you have found with other volunteers and scientists in the Talk forum.

Requirements

  • Time: 5-15 minutes to complete the tutorial
  • Equipment: Web-connected device.
  • Knowledge: None. In project tutorial provides all instruction needed.

Get started!

  1. Visit the project website.  
  2. Complete the in-project tutorial to learn how to spot binary systems in short animations of WISE data.
  3. Start identifying candidate binary systems containing a brown dwarf, using a Field Guide reference as necessary.

Learn More

The Backyard Worlds: Binaries Research page gives an overview of the research being pursued and its value towards expanding what we know about how star and planetary systems form. Links throughout this page take the reader to additional sources of information. The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page has additional information relevant to the work of the project. 

You might also like to try Backyard Worlds: Cool Neighbors and Backyard Worlds: Planet 9!

A vibrant logo set against a starry space background. In the center is a colorful, striped planet featuring shades of blue, green, and pink, surrounded by a glowing orange-red ring. A white silhouette of a telescope on a tripod points up toward the planet. Arcing above the planet is the text "BACKYARD WORLDS:" in white, blue-outlined letters. Arcing below is the word "BINARIES" in large, stylized red bubble letters on a white, cloud-like background.

Looping side‑by‑side animation showing two sky images: the original WISE sky view on the left and processed images on the right. Pixelated points labeled as M‑dwarf stars shift position between frames, illustrating how subtracting sequential images reveals moving objects.
Animated images from the Backyard Worlds: Binaries project showing two distinct “dipoles” – single objects moving through space – that appear to be moving together. These dipoles “flip” together, indicating that they are moving in the same direction.
Backyard Worlds: Binaries WISE data.

Get to know the people of Backyard Worlds: Binaries!

Mei Lin

Intern, undergraduate student
Harvard University

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Portrait photo of a man wearing a blue shirt and blazer

Aaron Meisner

Staff Astronomer
NSF’s NOIRLab and Harvard University

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Zachary Hartman

NASA Postdoctoral Fellow
NASA Ames Research Center

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Austin Rothermich

Graduate Student
City University of New York and American Museum of Natural History

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Portrait photo of a woman with long curly hair

Jackie Faherty

Astrophysicist / Scientist at American Museum of Natural History

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Adam Schneider

United States Naval Observatory

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Portrait photo of a smiling man

J. Davy Kirkpatrick

Astronomer, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) at the California Institute of Technology 

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Portrait photo of a bearded young man

Dan Caseldon

Citizen scientist and Research Associate, American Museum of Natural History

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Arjun Dey

Astronomer, NSF’s NOIRLab 

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John Gizis

Observational Astronomer, University of Delaware

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