You can help NASA discover new planets using your personal telescope or even just your smartphone.
Space agency’s Exoplanet Watch program seeks citizen scientists to help track planets outside our solar system, also known as the Exoplanet Watch Program exoplanets, Using a computer or smartphone, participants can use their own telescope to search for exoplanets or study data from other telescopes.
“With Exoplanet Watch you can learn how to observe exoplanets and perform data analysis using software that real NASA scientists use,” said the creator of Exoplanet Watch and an astrophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. Scientist Rob Zelem. said in a statement, “We’re excited to show more people how exoplanet science is really done.”
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exoplanet watch program Launched in 2018 under NASA’s Universe of Learning—one of the agency’s science activation programs that enables anyone to experience how science is done and discover the universe for themselves.
At the time, there were limits to how many people could help view the data collected by other telescopes. Now, the program is more widely accessible, according to the statement, allowing anyone to download and analyze the data.
there are more than 5,000 confirmed exoplanets And the potential for millions more that have yet to be discovered. These worlds have a wide range of characteristics, such as having twin suns, scorching hot surface temperature or vitreous clouds.
Most exoplanets have been found using the transit method, which involves looking for faint light from the host. Star As the planet passes in front of it. The time between transits describes how long it takes for an exoplanet to orbit its parent star, and the more transits measured, the more precisely the length of the orbit is known. and if you have your TelescopeExoplanet Watch can help you learn how to spot exoplanet transits, no matter what size telescope you’re using.
According to the statement, “Exoplanet Watch combines observations of a single target by multiple sky watchers to obtain a high-fidelity measurement.” “Combining observations is also useful if a planet’s transit lasts longer than it is visible in the sky for a single observer: many participants at different locations around the world can collectively observe the duration of a long transit.”
The combined observations led to the discovery of an exoplanet named HD 80606 b, which NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Will inspect later this year. The planet was detected using combined observations from more than 20 Exoplanet Watch participants.
“I hope this program lowers the barriers to science for many people and inspires the next generation of astronomers to join our field,” Zelm said in the statement.
Even if you don’t have a telescope, you can still participate in Exoplanet Watch. The program allows amateur astronomers to view 10 years’ worth of exoplanet observations collected by a small ground-based telescope south of Tucson, Arizona. New data from two telescopes at JPL’s Table Mountain facility in Southern California will also be added to the program’s database this year for review by participants.
This data is used to help refine planetary transit measurements and identify any variations in the apparent brightness of stars, which may be indicative of flares. flares are calledOr dark spots on the surface of a star.
“Having volunteers sort through the data will save significant computing and processing time,” according to the statement. “This work will help scientists estimate the variability of a particular star before studying its exoplanets with large, sensitive telescopes such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.”
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