Want to help find en exo panet?

[colmquinn]

The website http://www.planethunters.org/ lets you look at data from the Kepler telscope and see if you can spot possible exo planets that have been missed by their software. Humans are better at spotting small patterns than the current software is so they're looking for help.

The data is represented in a graphical form and you then click a few buttons and highlight a possible dimming area. The data will be examined by multiple people so the more people find a possible result then the scientists check em out to see if there's anything really there. Check out their Tutorial for an idea of what I'm talking about.

I have completed my first batch and have already got a candidate that it seems someone else has marked as a possible hit.

Give it a try.

[Captain Seafort]

Sounds like something similar SETI used to do (although that was using computer processing power rather than people). How long before there's a definite answer regarding the status of Planet Colm?

[colmquinn]

No idea but there is a section on their page that mentions the people who flagged possible planets, I was the second one to post on the data set (the bugger was about 5 mins before me) so its not going to be called DITL or anything like that

[colmquinn]

I gave it another try tonight and I've found 3 potential targets this time. Maybe my eye is getting better at spotting the patterns. Anyone else tried it?

[alexmann]

Tried this, haven't found anything yet.

[colmquinn]

Take your time, I think I was just lucky have a look at star 41001179 53208596 53047949 and you'll see the ones I spotted latest to get an idea & view the comments because others have seen what I saw.

Remember its real data from the Kepler and unfortunately science doesn't work the way we want to. (Also I think its soooo cool that we get to view real data from Kepler)

[Griffin]

I tried, but held off because I was in a rush and I wasn't that sure what I was actually looking for.

[colmquinn]

Check the tutorials for help. It is well worth your time, imagine if you were one of the first humans to spot a possible extra solar planet. Does it not blow your mind a little bit?