Citizen Astronomer Exoplanet Results

NASA-sponsored Exoplanet Observations

The global Unistellar community observes gas-giant exoplanets as part of a NASA-sponsored research program. In the first of several exoplanet transit hunts in 2022, Citizen Astronomers tracked TOI 1812.01 for three nights over the course of two months. Only on the third night, August 27, did they spot the exoplanet and confirm that it takes 112 days to orbit its star. In another exoplanet endeavor, 23 Unistellar observers watched exoplanet TOI 4465.01 over three continuous nights in search of a transit. Cumulatively, they logged an astounding 230 hours of observations and ultimately caught the transit signature. Observations like these help nail down exoplanet orbits.

We Support JWST

The “Roasted Planet”, aka HD 80606 b, passed in front of its star in December of 2021, giving seven Unistellar network members the opportunity to become the only citizen astronomers to observe the entire transit. This Jupiter-sized exoplanet travels incredibly close to its sun due to its oblong orbit, heating it up to thousands of degrees and creating planet-wise shockwave storms. Since HD 80606 b is on JWST’s target list, these observations saved the space telescope some valuable time by better preparing professional astronomers to observe this scorched world.

The Other Blue Planet

On November 6, 2020, three Citizen Astronomers observed the blue, Jupiter-sized exoplanet HD 189733b pass in front of its star. By combining their data, SETI scientists were able to time HD 189733b’s transit to within a couple of minutes, 63 light-years from Earth! All three eVscope observations of the “true blue planet” were consistent with data gathered by professional telescopes, showing the true value of citizen science with the Unistellar network.

Julien de Lambilly, Unistellar Citizen Astronomer from Switzerland said: 

“The HD 189733b campaign was particularly interesting to me because they wanted to compare the eVscope to research telescopes. I wanted to know how valuable our data could be!

So on November 6, I went to a mountain pass, le Col du Marchairuz at an elevation of 1389m in Switzerland to observe the HD 189733b transit. The sky was clear, Bortle class 4 and there was a lot of humidity, but luckily no wind at all. The temperature went from 4 to 2 degrees Celsius by the end.

I was a bit worried, because this was the first time I’d observed an exoplanet transit on a bright star like HD 189733.

I don’t know why I was worried anyway, Tom Esposito did the maths and told me it would fit just right!

On November 25 we discovered the results on the Unistellar slack channel. It was the first time the exoplanet experts from Unistellar were able to combine the data from different observers! And the light curve looked beautiful and indeed more precise than my own alone. This makes even more sense to work as a community! I’m proud to have participated! Special thanks to Dan Peluso and Tom Esposito for providing the opportunity!”