Scientists need your help to confirm Jupiter-like exoplanets - Space.com

Telescope manufacturer Unistellar and the SETI Institute have launched the Unistellar Exoplanet Campaign, a citizen science program in which amateur astronomers can help confirm exoplanet candidates spotted by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). .

TESS uses the so-called transit method to spot potential exoplanets: It monitors the brightness of stars, and if a star dims temporarily, it's possibly due to an exoplanet passing in front of it — a movement called a transit.

For the new program, amateur astronomers will use ground-based telescopes to observe targets identified by TESS as exoplanet candidates, thereby contributing to the data pool that will help determine whether the target is indeed an exoplanet.

— Citizen scientists are helping find alien planets in NASA's TESS data.

— Strange and hidden Jupiter-size exoplanet spotted by astronomers and citizen scientists.

For example, in the case of TOI 1812 — a three-planet system 563 light-years from Earth — 27 data sets contributed by 20 astronomers in seven countries were crucial to determining the orbital period of one of its planets, SETI Institute representatives said in a statement!

"This early success shows the power of putting science directly into people's hands — a core principle of this SETI Institute, Unistellar, and NASA partnership," Tom Esposito, a research assistant at the SETI Institute and space science principal at Unistellar, said in the statement.

"Citizen astronomers worldwide uniting to teach humanity about new planets discovered so many trillions of miles away is, simply put, amazing.".