{"id":14230,"date":"2017-04-17T15:10:24","date_gmt":"2017-04-17T19:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14230"},"modified":"2017-04-17T15:10:24","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T19:10:24","slug":"australian-citizen-scientists-spot-four-exoplanets-in-kepler-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14230","title":{"rendered":"Australian citizen scientists spot four exoplanets in Kepler data"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Australian TV program\u00a0<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/ourfocus\/stargazing\/\">ABC Stargazing Live<\/a>\u00a0with Brian Cox recently challenged its viewers to become citizen exoplanet finders. They succeeded within a couple of days\u00a0in finding four\u00a0<\/span>&#8220;Super Earth&#8221; planets each about twice the size of earth.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/exoplanet-discovery-by-an-amateur-astronomer-shows-the-power-of-citizen-science-75912\">Exoplanet discovery by an amateur astronomer shows the power of citizen science &#8211; The Conversation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mobile.abc.net.au\/news\/2017-04-06\/stargazing-live-four-planets-discovered-in-new-solar-system\/8423142?pfmredir=sm\">Stargazing Live viewers find four-planet solar system via crowd-sourcing project &#8211; ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corp.)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The discoveries were made using\u00a0data from the <a href=\"https:\/\/kepler.nasa.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\">Kepler space observatory<\/a> available on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zooniverse.org\/projects\/ianc2\/exoplanet-explorers\">Exoplanet Explorers<\/a>\u00a0site, which is hosted by the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zooniverse.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Zooniverse<\/a>\u00a0citizen science organization.<\/p>\n<p>Kepler observes thousands of stars and records the stars&#8217; brightness for long continuous periods. If a star&#8217;s planet comes between the line of sight with the earth, a dip in the star&#8217;s brightness can be seen in the data.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/image-20170407-16682-1vmwzqn1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"14231\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?attachment_id=14231\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/image-20170407-16682-1vmwzqn1.png\" data-orig-size=\"1662,843\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Kepler Data\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/image-20170407-16682-1vmwzqn1-1024x519.png\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-14231\" src=\"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/image-20170407-16682-1vmwzqn1-1024x519.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"520\" height=\"264\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/image-20170407-16682-1vmwzqn1-1024x519.png 1024w, https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/image-20170407-16682-1vmwzqn1-300x152.png 300w, https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/image-20170407-16682-1vmwzqn1-768x390.png 768w, https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/image-20170407-16682-1vmwzqn1.png 1662w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The width and depth of the drop in the light and the frequency of the dips provides clues to the size of the planet and its orbital period and distance from its star.<\/p>\n<p>While the above diagrams are\u00a0very clean and unambiguous, most real data is noisy and messy. Human&#8217;s are still much better than computer algorithms in spotting structures and unexpected features in such data and that is why citizen science volunteers can provide very useful services for the pro scientists who are collecting the data, especially when there are huge amounts of such data.<\/p>\n<p>In this case, the dips of four planets were seen in the light output of a star in\u00a0the Aquarius constellation 600 light years from earth. This video provides more details about these exoplanets:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZrFST9cvdAU?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">====<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none;\" src=\"\/\/rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?o=1&amp;p=12&amp;l=ur1&amp;category=wireless&amp;banner=02HND5YJK5NEFPBWFS02&amp;f=ifr&amp;linkID=7c7721c131c0bf76b1b2eecfd790e5b6&amp;t=hobbyspace&amp;tracking_id=hobbyspace\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Australian TV program\u00a0ABC Stargazing Live\u00a0with Brian Cox recently challenged its viewers to become citizen exoplanet finders. They succeeded within a couple of days\u00a0in finding four\u00a0&#8220;Super Earth&#8221; planets each about twice the size of earth. Exoplanet discovery by an amateur astronomer shows the power of citizen science &#8211; The Conversation Stargazing Live viewers find four-planet &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14230\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Australian citizen scientists spot four exoplanets in Kepler data<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,46,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy","category-exoplanets","category-space-participation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-3Hw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15346,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=15346","url_meta":{"origin":14230,"position":0},"title":"Video: Google neural network used to discover exoplanet","author":"TopSpacer","date":"December 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A NASA \/ Google collaboration used artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to discover an eighth planet around the star\u00a0Kepler-90i, which resides just over 2500 light years from earth. Discovery of eight planets makes alien system the first to tie with our solar system - NASA Google's AI found an overlooked exoplanet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/0uzv-tEa7SI\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2256,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=2256","url_meta":{"origin":14230,"position":1},"title":"Planet Hunter citizen scientists confirmed exoplanet in star&#8217;s habitable zone","author":"TopSpacer","date":"May 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this year participants in the\u00a0Planet Hunters citizen science project confirmed with 99.9 percent confidence the discovery of a Jupiter-sized planet called PH2b orbiting within the \u201chabitable zone\u201d of its star, the range where earth-like planets could have liquid water and possibly sustain life. The researchers also announced 42 new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"SPH10102031","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.zooniverse.org\/planethunters\/files\/2010\/12\/SPH10102031-300x203.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11048,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11048","url_meta":{"origin":14230,"position":2},"title":"Latest Kepler exoplanet finding to be announced","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"NASA is going to make an announcement today at 12:00 noon EDT about the latest discovery by\u00a0the Kepler \u00a0space observatory: NASA News Audio The first exoplanet orbiting another star like our sun was discovered in 1995. Exoplanets, especially small Earth-size worlds, belonged within the realm of science fiction just 21\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Exoplanets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Exoplanets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=46"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10209,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10209","url_meta":{"origin":14230,"position":3},"title":"TESS will hunt for exoplanets starting in 2017","author":"TopSpacer","date":"March 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Kepler space observatory proved the effectiveness of the transit technique in\u00a0finding exoplanets. After losing one reaction wheel too many, it was assumed that Kepler was an ex-exoplanet finder. However,\u00a0the clever Kepler scientists and engineers found a way to use\u00a0solar radiation pressure to keep the telescope steady in its viewing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Exoplanets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Exoplanets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=46"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/mpViVEO-ymc\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14135,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14135","url_meta":{"origin":14230,"position":4},"title":"Video: &#8220;Latest Exoplanet Results from NASA&#8217;s Kepler\/K2 Mission&#8221;","author":"TopSpacer","date":"April 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's an update on the latest exoplanet findings by the Kepler space observatory\u00a0and a preview of\u00a0the next generation of exoplanet search instruments:\u00a0Latest Exoplanet Results from NASA's Kepler\/K2 Mission | SETI Institute The all-sky TESS mission will soon revolutionize our view of planets transiting the nearest, brightest stars to the Sun,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Exoplanets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Exoplanets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=46"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/qPL9cFg8e38\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5946,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=5946","url_meta":{"origin":14230,"position":5},"title":"American Astronomical Society conf + New Kepler results + Reviving Kepler + Starshades","author":"TopSpacer","date":"January 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0\u00a0223rd Meeting\u00a0\u00a0of the\u00a0American Astronomical Society is taking place in Washington this week. Exoplanets and the Kepler observatory have been a topic of discussion today. Jeff Foust is posting notes from some of the presentations:\u00a0Jeff Foust (jeff_foust) on Twitter. === The Kepler space observatory group released this today:\u00a0NASA Kepler Provides Insight\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/G68sqgRhP2E\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14232,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14230\/revisions\/14232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}