Citizen scientists invited to search for exoplanets
DEC 17, 2010
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.024913
Scientific American : Planet Hunters, a recently launched citizen-scientist-powered website, will allow anyone with an internet connection to peruse data gathered by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft. The spacecraft’s telescope gazes at some 150 000 stars to monitor their brightness over several years. If a planet passes across the face of any of those stars, a sort of partial eclipse known as a transit occurs. By recording the resulting dips in brightness, Kepler‘s sensors have already discovered eight exoplanets since the spacecraft’s launch in March 2009. Several hundred more candidates await confirmation. The Planet Hunters website was launched by some of the same people who produced Galaxy Zoo and Moon Zoo .
© 2010 American Institute of Physics
