Now is your chance to find a planet on your own. Researchers need your help to identify exoplanets that orbit stars beyond our Solar System.
An international team of astronomers runs the Planet Hunters Next-Generation Transit Search. They have five years of digital footage that they need to sort through. If you accept the mission, your task is to find stars that dim briefly, possibly indicating a planet is passing right in front of you.
This is called a transit by experts. However, you don't have to be an expert to identify one. To sift through images from the NGTS telescopes based at ESO Paranal Observatory in Chile, you will need a keen eye and patience.
Peter Wheatley, an astrophysicist from the University of Warwick and the leader of NGTS, says that "it is exciting to be able... to involve the public in our hunt for planets around other stars." "We're pretty certain that our computer programs miss some planets."
These will be some of the most unique signals, and therefore most likely the most interesting planets. Humans are smarter than machines and I cannot wait to see the discoveries made by our volunteers."
There is a lot of data to process: Every 10 seconds the NGTS telescopes take shots of thousands stars in the sky. Although algorithms can be used to flag possible transit events, they aren't always perfect.
Software can detect dimmings which are not exoplanets and miss dimmings. That's where you come in. You will be shown charts showing light readings from stars in space. These are known as 'folded light curves. This is the combination of the software's analysis of a planet's orbit potential and the star's brightness over time.
Your task will be to identify and categorize the shapes shown on these charts. Experts and volunteers will cross-check each finding to help you identify missing exoplanets.
You'll need to identify one of the folded light curves. (NGTS).
"The automated algorithms produce lots of potential candidate transit events that must be reviewed by NGTS team in order to confirm their authenticity," Meg Schwamb from Queen's University Belfast, UK.
"Most of what computers see are not exoplanets. However, a few of these candidates may be new bona fide planet discovery."
To get started, visit the Planet Hunters NGST webpage. There is no application or fee. All you need to get started is a web browser, a passion for scientific discovery, and a willingness to pay a small fee. There are still thousands of volunteers who have been involved.
These citizen science discoveries are much more common than you might imagine. The Australian mechanic who discovered a strange four-planet system in the solar system to the British amateur metal detectorist who found a large cache of ancient Roman treasures.
There are many resources available to help you if you're stuck. And who knows, you might even make a significant contribution to the search for other planets.
