Researchers have found what may be two new planets outside of our solar system. Strike that: Gamers have found what may be two new planets outside of our solar system. Researchers at organizations including Yale and the University of Oxford joined together to create a browser game called Planet Hunters, which has seemingly borne fruit according to a released report.
The game allows players to look through data in the NASA Kepler public archives to search for potential planets.
“These data consist of brightness measurements, or 'light curves,' taken every thirty minutes for more than 150,000 stars. Users search for possible transit events - a brief dip in brightness that occurs when a planet passes in front of the star - with the goal of discovering a planet (hence the name Planet Hunters). Planet Hunter participants may be better than computers at finding signals in this type of data. Because of the outstanding pattern recognition of the human brain, we hope that participants will also establish new 'families' or classifications for the light curves,” explains the Planet Hunters FAQ.
"In the first month after launch, users identified two new planet candidates which survived our checks for false-positives,” notes the report.
See, gamers? Now you can tell them that we’re not just malcontents and layabouts! We’re malcontents and layabouts who found some planets!
[Via Gamasutra]
