Exoasteroids

Billions of years from now, our Sun will collapse into a dense, planet-sized object called a white dwarf. Many white dwarfs we can observe today are surrounded by dusty disks, thought to be remnants of former planetary systems like ours. Finding these dusty white dwarfs can give us clues about the future of our solar system.

Help astronomers discover debris disks and asteroids around white dwarfs using images taken by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope. We call asteroids that orbit stars other than the Sun "exoasteroids." Join our search for exoasteroids around white dwarfs, planet-sized objects that represent the final evolutionary stage of Sun-like stars!

Go to Project Website

ages

18 and up

division

Astrophysics

where

Online

launched

2024

two square side-by-side panels are filled with small flickering squares (pixels) of color - black, tans, pale blues, and least frequently, white.

Example of the paired flipbooks of images that Exoasteroids participants examine for evidence of variable white dwarf stars. The left panel shows a standard WiseView image taken from the unWISE sky atlas. The right panel shows the same data displayed as a “difference image” in the WiseView viewing tool. Black pixels in the right panel indicate dimming; white indicates brightening.

Exoasteroids project

What you’ll do

Examine images of distant white dwarf stars observed by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope and check whether they change in brightness.
Interact with peers and scientists on the project’s Zooniverse TALK bulletin board.
Click the “i” in a circle under each image to find links to astronomical databases with more info about these objects!

Requirements

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

Get started!

Visit our project website to learn how to identify variable white dwarf stars, which might be home to exoasteroids.
Complete the project tutorial.
Start looking at timelapse images of white dwarf stars to find the variable ones that might be hosting asteroids!

Learn More

Visit our project website to learn about exoasteroids and what they might reveal about the life cycles of stars, planets, and the movement through the universe of the building blocks of life.

Are you new to exoplanetary science, or the study of objects outside of our solar system? Visit the glossary on our FAQ page for additional assistance. Or ask the team in Talk!

A bright white object lies in the distance. It is surrounded by a small black space, which is in turn surrounded by a large gold-colored dusty disk of debris that fills most of the image. The disk is full of rings, indicating that the material in the ring is orbiting the central star. Across the flat expanse of this disk, a lighter, fuzzy band arcs from near the star to the outer edge of the disk. As this arc reaches closer to the viewer, the rocks and particles within it are visible.

Artist’s impression of G29-38, a variable white dwarf star, and its debris disk, with a comet being torn apart as it crosses this disk. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03652

NASA/JPL-Caltech, NASA/JPL-Caltech