While professional astronomers use algorithms to scan the data, citizen scientists inspect it by eye using a program called LcTools.
Although his may not sound like much, the data suggests that an orbiting planet could be responsible for the dimming.
By measuring the amount of light that dims as the planet passes, scientists can estimate how big the planet is and, in combination with other measurements, its density.A single transit event is when the planet passes in front of the star from our point of view, whereas computer algorithms used search for planets by identifying multiple transit events from a single star.
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