Welcome to my first astronomy project post!

Over the past few weeks, I have been learning how ordinary people can help with real astronomy research through citizen science. I tried two projects called Planet Hunters TESS and Dark Energy Explorers. Before starting, I had watched videos and read about space, but I had never worked with real scientific data.

At first, many of the graphs and images looked confusing. Once I learned what to look for, however, they became much more interesting.

Looking for Exoplanets

The first project I tried was Planet Hunters TESS. In this project, volunteers look at data collected by NASA’s TESS space telescope and search for possible exoplanets.

An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star outside our solar system. These planets are usually too small and far away to see directly. Instead, scientists can study how the brightness of a star changes over time.

When a planet passes in front of its star, it blocks a small amount of the star’s light. This is called a transit. It can appear as a small dip in a graph called a light curve. If similar dips repeat at regular intervals, they may be signs of a planet orbiting the star.

Figure 1. A light curve I examined in Planet Hunters TESS. I counted about 11 possible transit signals. Screenshot from Planet Hunters TESS on Zooniverse.

When I first saw this light curve, it looked like a large group of random dots. After studying it more carefully, I began to notice narrow dips that appeared at fairly regular intervals. I counted about 11 possible dips.

On the project’s discussion page, I learned that this light curve was connected to WASP-97 b. It is a confirmed gas giant orbiting a star about 490 light-years from Earth. I thought it was amazing that I could see evidence of a known planet in data that I had examined myself.

I also learned that finding a dip does not automatically mean that a planet has been discovered. Other objects or problems in the data can create similar patterns, so scientists need more evidence before confirming a planet.

Exploring Distant Galaxies

The second project I tried was Dark Energy Explorers. In this project, volunteers help researchers examine possible distant galaxies.

The project shows several images of the same part of the sky taken through different filters. It also includes a spectrum, which is a graph showing the light detected at different wavelengths. By comparing the images and spectrum, participants try to decide whether a signal is likely to come from a real galaxy or from background noise.

Figure 2. Two galaxy candidates I examined in Dark Energy Explorers. The candidate on the right appeared to show a clearer and more consistent signal. Source: Dark Energy Explorers on Zooniverse.

At first, both objects looked like blurry spots. When I compared the different images, the candidate on the right seemed more convincing. Its signal appeared in a similar location across several images, and its spectrum had a clearer peak. The candidate on the left looked less consistent, so I thought it was more likely to be noise or a false detection.

This project showed me that real astronomical data do not always look like the clear and colorful space pictures we see online. The images can be blurry, noisy, and difficult to understand. Scientists often need to compare several pieces of information before making a decision.

What I Learned

These projects taught me two different ways of studying objects that are extremely far away. In Planet Hunters TESS, I looked for repeating changes in a star’s brightness. In Dark Energy Explorers, I compared images and spectra to examine possible distant galaxies.

The most surprising thing I learned was how much information can be found in small changes in light. A tiny dip in brightness might be caused by a planet passing in front of a star. A peak in a spectrum might help scientists identify a galaxy billions of light-years away.

I also learned that citizen scientists do not make final discoveries by themselves. Their classifications are compared with those of other volunteers and then examined by researchers. Even so, it was exciting to know that people can help with real scientific research from their own computers.

Participating in these projects made me even more interested in astronomy. I look forward to learning more, exploring new questions, and sharing what I discover in future blog posts.