If you’ve always wanted to work for NASA, this is your chance. Well, don’t expect a salary or benefits, but the agency is looking for volunteers to help process the vast amount of exoplanet data using the Exoplanet Watch program. If you have a telescope, you can even contribute data to the project. But if your telescope is in the back locker, you can process the data they’ve collected over the years.
You might think that the only way to contribute with a telescope is to have a small observatory in your backyard, but that’s not the case. According to NASA, even the 6-inch telescope can detect hundreds of transiting exoplanets using their software. You may not get paid, but program policy requires that the first article utilizing work completed by program volunteers receive co-authorship credit. Not so bad!
The observations include measuring dips in the brightness of stars caused by known exoplanet transits. This allows the planet’s orbit to be calculated more accurately, which can help other scientists who want to monitor the planet later. This can save valuable time on larger instruments by instructing the telescope on the exact time the exoplanet will pass.
We find it paradoxical that not so long ago science generally rejected the possibility of discovering and observing exoplanets. Today, there are more than 5,000. That’s 1,000 a year for Enterprise’s five-year mission.
We love citizen science, especially when it’s based in space. There are many other projects in Animal World if you want to choose between space and other types of science.