Citizen Science Salon is a partnership between Discover and SciStarter.Org.
NASA is recruiting citizen science volunteers to help astronomers discover exoplanets hidden in observations from one of its space telescopes.
A pair of citizen science projects, Planet Hunters TESS and Planet Patrol, are asking users to help sort through images from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and separate out potential exoplanet signals from those of planet impostors. Meanwhile, another project called Exoplanet Watch is tapping amateur astronomers to help follow up on new planet discoveries using backyard telescopes.
It’s an opportunity for volunteers to play an important role in astronomy’s exoplanet gold rush, where thousands of worlds have been discovered in recent decades. The projects will be featured as part of an event on May 21 called Planet Palooza during the upcoming CitSciCon, put on by NASA, SciStarter and the Citizen Science Association. The event is hosted by Phil Plait, AKA the Bad Astronomer.
NASA’s TESS mission
In 2018, NASA launched TESS as a next-generation space telescope designed to find Earth’s cosmic neighbors. The mission was a successor to NASA’s iconic Kepler spacecraft, which found more than 5,000 potential exoplanets.
Like its predecessor, TESS’ mission is to discover new alien worlds by watching for dips of light in more than 200,000 bright, nearby stars. Astronomers call these dips “transits.” And during its initial two-year mission, TESS managed to image nearly the entire night sky and make nearly 100 confirmed new exoplanet discoveries. The space telescope has also turned up thousands of potential exoplanet candidates thanks to clever algorithms and sophisticated hardware. But confirming these candidates isn’t easy.
The initial planet candidates are found by an algorithm that scans TESS’ images. Then, astronomers enlist a second, highly effective algorithm to confirm the results of the first program. But even these cutting-edge computer codes get tripped up sometimes, leaving huge numbers of potential exoplanets that need to be confirmed manually.
“With TESS, the number of targets to look at now is in the millions, and even after you run the vetting software, the number is still in the millions,” says NASA astronomer and citizen science officer Marc Kuchner.
Most of those millions of targets are not exoplanets at all. But NASA still needs to do a basic analysis to find out if it’s noise, a binary star, or something more interesting. Astronomers can’t handle such a large job on their own, so citizen scientists have stepped in to take up the task.
Citizen science in astronomy
Turning to citizen science volunteers for this kind of help isn’t unusual in astronomy these days. Modern astronomical surveys commonly use computer algorithms to discover new objects in their vast archives of images. But astronomers know that computers can’t catch everything. And the human brain is often still better at identifying new planets than a computer.
“The datasets we’re getting for astronomy are just so huge right now,” says Kuchner, who also works on Planet Patrol. “Citizen scientists have already discovered half of the known comets and most of the long-period exoplanets. They’re making discoveries left and right. I think that astronomy projects are realizing that they need to work with the citizen science community to make the most of their data science.”
Citizen scientists have already helped discover hundreds of new exoplanets, thousands of brown dwarfs, plus other strange objects, like Boyajian’s star.
Volunteers with Planet Hunters TESS have made over 250,000 classifications of astronomical objects. And so far, some 5,000 Planet Patrol volunteers have made more than 400,000 image classifications. In fact, they’ve already analyzed all the project’s uploaded data, so the researchers are working on uploading new images for analysis.
In Planet Patrol, users are asked to look at an image and apply some basic categorization, like whether there’s a bright spot in the center of the image, more than one bright spot, or no well-defined bright spot.
“Our automated algorithms are correct around 90 percent of the time,” says Planet Patrol’s project leader, Veselin Kostov, who works as a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the SETI Institute. “[But] sometimes, they struggle with weak signals.”
According to Kostov, the algorithms can get tripped up by false-positives, which look like the signals from exoplanets but are actually other natural phenomena. Common sources of confusion include stellar eclipses and occultations, where one star passes in front of another, as well as instrument artifacts.
Amateur astronomers hunting exoplanets
By the time the TESS mission is over, NASA expects the space telescope will have discovered thousands of confirmed exoplanets relatively close to Earth. Of those, some 300 are expected to be exoplanets the size of Earth or slightly bigger. Then, after the James Webb Space Telescope is launched in the next few years, it will follow up on those finds in much greater detail, giving astronomers unprecedented insights into other worlds that might just be like Earth.
“The heyday of TESS science is yet to come,” says Kuchner. “The major goal is for these planets to be followed up by the JWST. I think that’s going to really mine the most science out of these TESS exoplanets. Each one is intrinsically interesting because it’s nearby — often they’re in star systems that you’ve heard of.”
Where a typical planet discovered by the Kepler space telescope might be thousands of light-years away, the ones discovered by TESS might be just 100 light-years away. And that proximity means JWST will be able to look at the chemical fingerprints of these worlds, including their atmospheres, searching for potential signs of life. So, a world discovered by Planet Patrol users might end up being one that astronomers soon study in much greater detail.
Exoplanet Watch is also hoping to make it easier to follow up on exoplanet candidates. The NASA citizen science project is starting out geared toward having amateur astronomers, as well as colleges and universities, observe transiting exoplanets with small telescopes. The citizen scientists observe their own exoplanets, analyze and upload their own data, then upload it to the American Association of Variable Star Observers so they can be shared with astronomers.
Those small telescope observations can pin down a planet’s orbit, which then helps researchers better calculate the world’s size. Beyond confirming and discovering new exoplanets, the observations should also make for more efficient use of time on pricey space telescopes, like JWST.
And while the opportunity to help discover entire planets might seem like plenty of incentive to get involved, Kuchner says that, in his experience, citizen scientists are often inspired to keep going by benefits they never initially expected.
“It changes people’s lives when they get to meet new people who are doing science,” Kuchner says. “They get to realize that they’re not the only person who’s interested in it. There’s other people like them. Then, they make their first discovery and they get to be a piece of the action.”
Volunteers who want to get in on the planet-hunting action can tune in to the Planet Palooza event on May 21 for a demo of Planet Hunters TESS. The NASA project scientists will also be on hand to answer questions.
Citizen Science Salon ni ushirikiano kati ya Discover na SciStarter.Org. NASA inatafuta wajitoleaji wa sayansi ya raia kusaidia wataalamu wa nyota kugundua sayari zilizofichwa katika uchunguzi kutoka kwa moja ya darubini zake za angani. "Mashirika mawili ya sayansi ya raia, Planet Hunters (TESS) na Planet Patrol (PAT), yanawaomba watumiaji kusaidia kutenganisha picha kutoka kwa Satellite ya Uchunguzi wa Exoplanet ya NASA (TESS) na kutenganisha ishara za uwezekano wa exoplanet kutoka kwa wale wa ""wafanyabiashara wa sayari.""" "Mfano wa mradi huo ni ""Exoplanet Watch,"" ambao unawawezesha wataalamu wa nyota wa amateur kufuatilia nyota mpya zinazopatikana kwa kutumia darubini za nyuma." Ni fursa kwa wajitoleaji kucheza jukumu muhimu katika astronomy ya exoplanet dhahabu kukimbilia, ambapo maelfu ya dunia wamekuwa aligundua katika miongo ya hivi karibuni. "Mipango hiyo itaonyeshwa katika tukio la ""Planet Palooza"" linalofanyika Mei 21 wakati wa mkutano wa Citizen ScienceCon ulioandaliwa na NASA, SciStarter na Shirika la Sayansi ya Raia." Tukio hilo linaandaliwa na Phil Plait, AKA Mtaalamu Mbaya wa Nyota. NASA ilizindua TESS mnamo 2018 kama darubini ya anga ya kizazi kijacho iliyoundwa kupata jirani za anga za Dunia. NASA ilifanya utafiti wa kwanza kwenye msafara wa Kepler, ambao uligundua sayari zaidi ya 5,000 za nje ya dunia. TESS, kama ilivyokuwa na mjumbe wake wa kwanza, inatafuta nyota zaidi ya 200,000 zilizo karibu. "Wanasayansi wa sayari huita mabadiliko haya ""transits"" na wakati wa safari yake ya kwanza ya miaka miwili, TESS ilifanikiwa kupiga picha karibu anga lote la usiku na kufanya karibu 100 ya uvumbuzi mpya wa exoplanets." Darubini hiyo ya angani pia imepata maelfu ya uwezekano wa kuwa na sayari nyingine nje ya anga kwa sababu ya mbinu zake za kiufundi na vifaa vyake vya hali ya juu. Lakini kuthibitisha wagombea hawa si rahisi. Wagombea wa kwanza wa sayari hupatikana na algorithm ambayo inachunguza picha za TESS. Kisha, wataalamu wa nyota hutumia mbinu ya pili yenye matokeo mazuri sana ili kuthibitisha matokeo ya programu ya kwanza. Hata hivyo, hata programu hizo za kompyuta za kisasa hufichwa mara kwa mara, na hivyo kutokeza idadi kubwa ya sayari za nje ambazo zinahitaji kuthibitishwa kwa mikono. "Kwa TESS, idadi ya malengo ya kuangalia sasa ni katika mamilioni, na hata baada ya kuendesha programu ya uchunguzi, idadi bado ni katika mamilioni, "anasema NASA mtaalamu wa nyota na afisa wa sayansi ya raia Marc Kuchner. Wengi wa mamilioni hayo ya malengo si sayari za nje ya dunia hata kidogo. Lakini NASA bado inahitaji kufanya uchambuzi wa msingi ili kujua kama ni kelele, nyota ya binary, au kitu cha kuvutia zaidi. Wataalamu wa nyota hawawezi kushughulikia kazi kubwa kama hiyo peke yao, kwa hiyo wanasayansi wa raia wameingilia kati kuchukua kazi hiyo. Sayansi ya raia katika elimu ya nyota Kuelekeza kwa wajitoleaji wa sayansi ya raia kwa aina hii ya msaada si jambo la kawaida katika elimu ya nyota siku hizi. Uchunguzi wa kisasa wa nyota kwa kawaida hutumia mbinu za kompyuta kugundua vitu vipya katika hifadhi zao kubwa za picha. Lakini wataalamu wa nyota wanajua kwamba kompyuta haziwezi kukamata kila kitu. Kwa kweli, ubongo wa binadamu ni bora zaidi katika kutambua sayari mpya kuliko kompyuta. "Mkusanyiko wa data tunayoipata kwa ajili ya elimu ya nyota ni kubwa sana sasa hivi", anasema Kuchner, ambaye pia anafanya kazi kwenye Planet Patrol. <unk>Wanasayansi raia tayari wamegundua nusu ya kometi zinazojulikana na wengi wa exoplanets za kipindi kirefu. Wao ni kufanya uvumbuzi kushoto na kulia. "Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, ""mashirika ya sayansi ya umma yanafanya kazi kwa pamoja ili kupata zaidi ya sayansi ya data, na tayari wamesaidia kugundua mamia ya sayari mpya, maelfu ya dwarfs kahawia, pamoja na vitu vingine vya ajabu kama nyota ya Boyajian.""" Watafiti wa TESS wamekuwa wakifanya kazi ya kuorodhesha vitu zaidi ya 250,000 vya nyota. Tangu mwaka wa 2015, wafanyakazi wa Planet Patrol wamekuwa wakifanya kazi ya kuorodhesha picha zaidi ya 400,000. Kwa kweli, tayari wamechambua data zote zilizopakiwa za mradi huo, kwa hivyo watafiti wanafanya kazi ya kupakia picha mpya kwa uchambuzi. Katika Planet Patrol, watumiaji wanaulizwa kuangalia picha na kutumia baadhi ya uainishaji wa msingi, kama vile kama kuna doa mkali katikati ya picha, zaidi ya doa moja mkali, au hakuna doa mkali iliyofafanuliwa vizuri. "Algorithms zetu za kiotomatiki ni sahihi karibu asilimia 90 ya wakati,"" anasema kiongozi wa mradi wa Planet Patrol, Veselin Kostov, ambaye anafanya kazi kama mtafiti katika Kituo cha Ndege za Anga cha NASA na Taasisi ya SETI." "Lakini wakati mwingine, wanashindana na ishara dhaifu. ""Kulingana na Kostov, algorithms inaweza kupata tripped up na uongo-positive, ambayo kuangalia kama ishara kutoka exoplanets lakini ni kweli matukio mengine ya asili." Vyanzo vya kawaida vya kuchanganyikiwa ni pamoja na kupatwa kwa nyota na kufichwa, ambapo nyota moja hupita mbele ya nyingine, na vilevile vitu vya vyombo. NASA inatarajia kwamba wakati mradi wa TESS utakapomalizika, darubini hiyo ya angani itapata maelfu ya sayari za nje zilizo karibu na dunia. Kati ya hizo, 300 zinatarajiwa kuwa na ukubwa wa Dunia au kubwa kidogo. Baada ya James Webb Space Telescope kutangazwa, watafiti watatumia teknolojia hiyo kugundua vitu vilivyoonekana duniani na kugundua vitu vilivyoonekana duniani. <unk>Usiku wa kilele cha sayansi ya TESS bado haujakuja,<unk> anasema Kuchner. <unk>Lengo kuu ni kwa ajili ya sayari hizi kufuatiliwa na JWST. Nadhani hiyo itatoa sayansi zaidi kutoka kwa sayari hizi za nje za TESS. "Kila moja ni intrinsically kuvutia kwa sababu ni karibu - mara nyingi wao ni katika mifumo ya nyota kwamba umesikia kuhusu. ""Kama sayari ya kawaida aligundua na Kepler space telescope inaweza kuwa maelfu ya miaka ya mwanga mbali, wale aligundua na TESS inaweza kuwa tu 100 miaka ya mwanga mbali." JWST itaweza kuchunguza alama za kemikali za sayari hizo, ikiwa ni pamoja na angahewa zao, kutafuta ishara za uwezekano wa maisha. Kwa hiyo, ulimwengu uliogunduliwa na watumiaji wa Planet Patrol unaweza kuishia kuwa moja ambayo wataalamu wa nyota watajifunza kwa undani zaidi. Exoplanet Watch pia inatumaini kufanya iwe rahisi kufuatilia wagombea wa exoplanet. NASA ina mpango wa utafiti wa sayari unaoundwa na wataalamu wa nyota wa amateur na wataalamu wa elimu ya juu, ambao wanafanya kazi kwa kutumia darubini ndogo. Wanasayansi wa raia huangalia sayari zao za nje, kuchambua na kupakia data zao wenyewe, kisha kupakia kwa Chama cha Marekani cha Watazamaji wa Nyota ya Mabadiliko ili waweze kushirikiana na wataalamu wa nyota. Uchunguzi huo wa darubini ndogo unaweza kuamua mzunguko wa sayari, na hivyo kuwasaidia watafiti kuhesabu ukubwa wa dunia. Zaidi ya kuthibitisha na kugundua sayari mpya za nje ya anga, uchunguzi huo pia unapaswa kufanya matumizi bora zaidi ya wakati kwenye darubini za anga zenye gharama kubwa, kama vile JWST. Ingawa fursa ya kusaidia kugundua sayari nzima inaweza kuonekana kama kichocheo cha kutosha cha kushiriki, Kuchner anasema kwamba, katika uzoefu wake, wanasayansi wa raia mara nyingi huchochewa kuendelea na faida ambazo hawakuwahi kutarajia mwanzoni. "Inabadilisha maisha ya watu wanapokutana na watu wapya wanaofanya sayansi", anasema Kuchner. Wao kupata kutambua kwamba wao si mtu pekee ambaye ni nia ya hilo. Kuna watu wengine kama wao. "Wanaweza pia kushiriki katika ""Uvuvi wa Sayari"" na ""Uvuvi wa Sayari"" katika tukio la Planet Palooza mnamo Mei 21 kwa demo ya Planet Hunters TESS." Wanasayansi wa mradi wa NASA pia watakuwapo kujibu maswali.