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A university partnership project which has involved members of the public in identifying cosmic explosions has announced its first major discovery.

The ‘Kilonova Seekers’ project, which aims to find kilonovae - the cosmic explosions of neutron stars and black holes colliding in distant galaxies - has published details of the discovery of a cataclysmic variable star, named GOTO0650, in the scientific journal . 

The star underwent extreme brightening, by a factor of 2,500 that was not seen when compared to an image taken two days before. It is thanks to the quick response and diligence of the public that this object could be studied and classified so early in its evolution. 

In the Kilonova Seekers project, volunteers are asked to play ‘spot the difference’ using data from two Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) telescopes, which are located on opposite sides of the planet - on La Palma, in Spain’s Canary Islands, and Australia’s Siding Spring Observatory.

The Kilonova Seekers compare the latest images of a section of night sky to an image of the same section of space taken on previous nights and point out new stars or significant changes in light intensity that may indicate that something remarkable has happened in space.

Kilonova Seekers was developed by Dr Lisa Kelsey (University of Cambridge) and Dr Tom Killestein (University of Warwick). Dr Kelsey was hired by ������� Professor, Laura Nuttall. as part of her UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship to develop a public engagement project involving data from the system. 

Dr Kelsey worked on the project at the ������� for three years before moving to her current post at the.

Professor Laura Nuttall said: “I'm really proud of everything Kilonova Seekers is achieving. We're engaging with people in just about every timezone, and thanks to their enthusiasm for the project, they are making discoveries and contributing to furthering our understanding of astrophysics.”

Dr Kelsey said: “Citizen science is a powerful way to make novel serendipitous discoveries in vast datasets that would normally need to be analysed in depth by scientists.

“With over 2.8 million classifications so far, the discovery of GOTO0650 is really the pinnacle of two years of consistent hard work from our volunteers. Without the Kilonova Seekers volunteers flagging this object, rapid follow-up would not have been possible, and this object may have been missed entirely.”

Co-lead of Kilonova Seekers, Dr Tom Killestein, Warwick Prize Fellow in the Astronomy and Astrophysics group at the University of Warwick added: “Kilonova Seekers is a unique opportunity for members of the public to take part in true real-time astrophysics. Remarkably, public volunteers identified this star as an object of interest within three and a half hours of the image being taken by the GOTO telescopes – this discovery could have been missed among many other objects without their efforts.”

The vast numbers of observations taken in these imaging surveys will soon be beyond the capacity of individual and small teams of scientists to label and validate. Citizen Science is a viable, mutually beneficial solution to avoid objects like GOTO0650 being missed. 

Cledison Marcos da Silva, Kilonova Seekers Volunteer said: “This discovery was very important to me, as I was going through a serious health problem and the citizen science we do at Kilonova Seekers was distracting me from my situation. I never imagined that we would discover such a bright transient, so it was a huge surprise, and we were very happy when we found out. This discovery shows the importance of citizen science, both scientifically and personally. Even from your bed, or on the street with your cell phone, there is the possibility of making a very important discovery.”

Mayahuel Torres-Guerrero, Kilonova Seekers Volunteer said: “The journey from the discovery of GOTO0650 to the publication of the paper in Astronomy & Astrophysics has been personally rewarding. I had the opportunity to learn how to download data from LCO telescopes and to produce light curves that allowed us to monitor echo outbursts. It was very exciting when GOTO0650 produced an echo outburst on Christmas Day and New Year's Day! It was a great journey for someone who has studied social sciences like me!”

Kilonova Seekers has provided over 3,500 members of the public with the opportunity to discover supernovae and variable stars using real data. With volunteers from around the world, across 23 timezones, there is almost always someone online looking at the data in real-time.