Research
Planet Hunters TESS
Since 2018, Planet Hunters TESS has been discovering exoplanets by asking volunteers to look at the light curves of stars, searching for the dips in brightness caused by a planet passing in front of the star. We would like to know if those dips in brightness can also be detected when you listen to light curves that have been converted to sound (sonified.)
Sonification
Sonification uses sound to represent data, rather than visual charts and pictures. Our ears are very sensitive to changes in the pitch and timbre of sounds, which can make sonification a useful technique to complement visualisation. A well-known example is the rate of clicking of a Geiger counter, which conveys the level of radiation in the immediate vicinity of the device. In our experiment here, we have converted TESS data to sound, so that dips in brightness sound like sudden increases in pitch, or 'blips', in a star's light curve.
We are interested in learning whether volunteers can use these audio light curves to spot planetary transits, just like their visual counterparts in Planet Hunters TESS.