Planet Finders

Where does the data come from?

The data that we show on Planet Hunters comes from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS. Over the course of 2 years, the satellite will look at 200,000 of the brightest and closest stars in our solar neighbourhood, finding planets ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants. TESS is the very first all-sky survey that is based in space and provides us with data that would be extremely difficult to collected from the ground. To find out more about TESS have a look at the Research page, or find out more directly from NASA. All of the TESS data, including the resulting catalogs, will be archived by NASA at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST).

Are you the TESS science team?

We are not part of the TESS science team; we are a separate reach team utilizing the available public TESS data archived by NASA at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST).

Why can't you say the transits I spotted are a bonafied planet?

Solely based on a TESS lightcurves we can never be 100% sure that there is a planet, even if it exhibits transit-like features. There are many astrophysical phenomena, such as eclipsing binaries, that can result in a false positive, so we initially call all findings 'planet candidates'.

If I make a mistake, can I go back and edit my classification?

If you mark a transit you can change and edit it until you press the 'done' or 'done & talk' button. However, once you submit your classification it goes straight into our database and you won't be able to change it. But don't worry, each lightcurve is seen by multiple volunteers so our analysis will filter out accidental wrong markings. Just do your best!

Do I get credit for my discoveries?

Definitely, everyone who contributes to finding a planet through Planet Hunters will be acknowledged. If you are the first person to flag a transit that turns out to be a real planet or that planet candidate becomes the focus of a published paper you will be offered to be a co-author of the discovery paper. Everyone else who classified that lightcurve will be acknowledged and thanked for their contributions on the website and in the paper. Additionally, your Zooniverse username will appear in the MAST database next to all planet candidates that you helped to classify.

Do I have to log in to get credit for my discoveries?

Yes, if you do not log in we don't know who you are and unfortunately we can't credit you for your discoveries. If you create an account and log in we are able to contact you about your discoveries.

Why are there simulated transits?

In order for the science team to understand what kind of planets we can and can't find with Planet Hunters we show you lightcurves where we know all the properties of the planetary system. This helps us gain a more complete understanding of the range of planets that are in our Galaxy and is vital to our statistical analysis of the results. The simulated data is there to test the system, not you, and we will always tell you if you have just classified a simulated transit. Find out more on the Research page.

How is this different from the previous Planet Hunters projects?

The previous Planet Hunters project used data from the NASA Kepler spacecraft, whereas the new Planet Hunters uses TESS data. TESS is an all-sky survey and will look at 400 times as many stars as Kepler did. Furthermore, TESS will monitor closer and brighter stars making it easier for us to follow up planet candidates with ground-based telescopes. The layout of both projects are very similar, but there is a new core Science team.

Didn't find an answer to your question? Visit Talk and ask the Planet Hunters: TESS Talk Community