https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/science/2019/01/08/citizen-scientists-star-discovery

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They found two transits suggesting the existence of a planet, but needed evidence of a third transit to confirm the discovery. They couldn’t find it.

By this time, Kepler was on its K2 mission, which ran from 2014 to October 2018, when it ran out of fuel and essentially died. During the K2 mission, the spacecraft carrying the telescope repositioned itself to search a new patch of sky every three months.

The problem was, repositioning the spacecraft caused tiny changes in the shape of the telescope and the temperature of the electronics – and these systematic errors rendered the first few days of data in the new spot unreliable.

So the data was discarded – including that containing evidence of the third transit.

…

The re-processed data wasn’t investigated by the Kepler project, but rather posted to Exoplanet Explorers, a project where the public searches Kepler’s K2 observations to locate new transiting planets.

In May 2017, volunteers noticed the third transit, setting off much excited discussion
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Pretty cool. I’m going to go live there.

Kothos said:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/science/2019/01/08/citizen-scientists-star-discovery

—

They found two transits suggesting the existence of a planet, but needed evidence of a third transit to confirm the discovery. They couldn’t find it.

By this time, Kepler was on its K2 mission, which ran from 2014 to October 2018, when it ran out of fuel and essentially died. During the K2 mission, the spacecraft carrying the telescope repositioned itself to search a new patch of sky every three months.

The problem was, repositioning the spacecraft caused tiny changes in the shape of the telescope and the temperature of the electronics – and these systematic errors rendered the first few days of data in the new spot unreliable.

So the data was discarded – including that containing evidence of the third transit.

…

The re-processed data wasn’t investigated by the Kepler project, but rather posted to Exoplanet Explorers, a project where the public searches Kepler’s K2 observations to locate new transiting planets.

In May 2017, volunteers noticed the third transit, setting off much excited discussion
—-

Pretty cool. I’m going to go live there.

Don’t forget to write

dv said:

Don’t forget to write

Not sure if they’ll have an Internet connection but I’m sure the postal service covers it.

Kothos said:

dv said:

Don’t forget to write

Not sure if they’ll have an Internet connection but I’m sure the postal service covers it.

You could always send radio bursts.

> In May 2017, volunteers noticed the third transit, setting off much excited discussion.

Although sufficient data exists to identify a planet from a single transit, problems with light leakage from unrelated stars means that three transits are needed. Unless the three transits are equally spaced, the observation of two transits is most likely an Algol type binary star.