Planet Hunters Next-Generation Transit Survey seeks armchair astronomers
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The project is looking for volunteers to help discover new planets
An online project is looking for people to take part in a space survey, all from the comfort of their armchair at home!
The Planet Hunters Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) is seeking the help of the public to look at five years' worth of digital footage capturing some of the brightest stars in the sky.
The footage was taken by 12 robotic telescopes based at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Paranal Observatory in Chile.
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The NGTS is a collaboration between a number of universities in the UK and Chile, as well as the Geneva Observatory, German Aerospace Centre and the European Southern Observatory.
Those involved in the project want 'armchair astronomers' to take part in the hunt for exoplanets, which are planets that can be found outside of our solar system.
"If the orbit of an exoplanet is seen at just the right angle from Earth, we may observe the planet passing directly in front of its host star, known as a transit," said Dr Meg Schwamb who is an astronomer at the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen's University Belfast and also the lead on the project.
"This causes the planet to periodically block a portion of the starlight we observe, and the star appears to dim ever so slightly for a few hours.
Exoplanets are planets that orbit a different star than our Sun - in a different solar system to the one we are in.
Even though scientists thought for a long time that they must exist, it was only in 1992 that the first exoplanet was discovered.
Space experts say exoplanets are really important because they raise the possibility that life could exist in other solar solar systems.
The NGTS telescopes capture light from the thousands of stars in the sky every 10 seconds and they look for possible signs of exoplanets that could be orbiting stars. These images are then assessed by computers which try to detect repeated dips in starlight due to planet transits.
The potential transits need to be reviewed so researchers can confirm whether they're real or not.
"Most of the things spotted by the computers are not due to exoplanets, but a small handful of these candidates are new bona fide planet discoveries," Dr Schwamb explained.
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Professor Christopher Watson, who is also working on the project, said the team want the public's help to sift through the data to search for possible hidden planets not found in the first review.
Luckily, those looking to get involved don't have to apply to take part. All that's required is access to a web browser.
"Most planets in the data will have already been found by the NGTS team, but volunteers just might be the first on this planet to find a brand-new world orbiting another star in our galaxy," said Professor Watson.
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