from the I-put-on-my-scope-and-wizard-hat dept.
Researchers call for armchair astronomers to help find unknown hidden worlds:
Astronomers at the University of Warwick have joined partners around the world in launching a new online initiative, calling for volunteers to come forward and help to search for extrasolar planets.
The online citizen project, Planet Hunters Next-Generation Transit Search (NGTS), is enlisting the help of the public to examine five years' worth of digital footage showing some of the brightest stars in the sky.
The footage was captured by twelve NGTS robotic telescopes based at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Paranal Observatory in Chile—they make high precision measurements, sensitive enough to detect the signatures of exoplanets.
[...] "Computers are searching through the NGTS observations looking for the telltale repeated dips in starlight due to planet transits. The automated algorithms produce lots and lots of possible candidate transit events that need to be reviewed by the NGTS team to confirm whether they are real or not.
"Most of things spotted by the computers are not due to exoplanets, but a small handful of these candidates are new bona fide planet discoveries."
While the NGTS team reviews the most interesting objects identified by computers, humans are still better at picking out the signals of transiting planets—and the team thinks there may still be planets lurking in the data that the computers missed.
There is no application process to join the Planet Hunters NGTS project. Anyone with a web browser can dive right into the data and start searching for these possible hidden worlds and helping to check the best candidate planets identified on the website.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 23 2021, @12:14AM (4 children)
Ask others to do your job for free.
Shit's crazy these days.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 23 2021, @01:09PM
It's not work if it's fun. Though they could offer to let you name the planet if you actually find one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 23 2021, @02:07PM (1 child)
Some don't worship Mammon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 23 2021, @04:07PM
Yeah, they're the ones leaving those turds all over San Francisco side walks.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday October 25 2021, @05:03PM
Not crazy, if you have a bunch of people that are willing to help for free.
Here's a nice list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_astronomy [wikipedia.org]
The Sky is Huge, getting more people analyzing more sections of the sky is beneficial.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 23 2021, @12:28AM
try that muttafukkas.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by looorg on Saturday October 23 2021, @01:03AM (3 children)
Armchair Astronomer is that a demotion or promotion from Armchair General?
But looking at years worth of data for free, somewhat less appealing. I guess you have to be real fan. If you find something do you get to name it or will someone else steal credit (just like in academia ...)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 23 2021, @02:11PM
Armchair General is second guessing. Armchair Astronomer is first guessing.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 23 2021, @10:12PM
From my armchair, all I can see is Uranus. And a celestial cock and balls ascending in Aquarius. Where's my Nobel Prize???
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 25 2021, @12:27AM
On the other hand, it sounds like it pays better than being a graduate student.