Description
Dwarf novae serve as crucial laboratories for studying accretion physics, binary mass transfer, and the endpoints of stellar evolution - with early discovery and intensive follow-up being crucial to capitalise on the opportunity they provide.
In this talk I will present GOTO065054+593624, a dwarf nova first discovered in real-time by the Kilonova Seekers citizen science project, which uses the wisdom of the crowd via Zooniverse to find novel discoveries in data from the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) survey. An intensive follow-up campaign started immediately after discovery, including X-ray coverage from Einstein Probe and Swift, with a significant contribution from citizen scientists worldwide. The overall outburst light curve, obtained spectroscopy, and high-amplitude echo outbursts all point towards a WZ Sge-like dwarf nova - with the orbital period inferred from the observed superhumps and WD temperature pointing towards it being a potential period-bounce system.
Beyond the comprehensive dataset obtained, this object further underscores the critical role that citizen science contributes to the study of variable stars: in not only the discovery of, but detailed follow-up of objects such as GOTO0650.
