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Posted by baalke on October 12, 2006, 12:00 pm
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News from UC Santa Cruz
Office of Public Affairs
October 11, 2006
PIO Contacts: Marcus Woo (831) 459-2495; mwoo@ucsc.edu
Tim Stephens (831) 459-2495; stephens@ucsc.edu
Planet hunters wanted to help astronomers in the search for new worlds
For Immediate Release
SANTA CRUZ, CA--Astronomers at the University of California, Santa
Cruz, are seeking the public's help to find and understand planets
outside our solar system. But you don't need an advanced degree or
even a telescope to participate--just a computer, access to the
Internet, and an interest in astronomy.
The project, called Systemic, enlists volunteers to help astronomers
better understand what kinds of planetary systems inhabit our galaxy,
the Milky Way, and whether systems like our solar system are common.
Astronomers have already found nearly 200 extrasolar planets orbiting
other stars. But according to Gregory Laughlin, associate professor
of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC, the types of planetary systems
astronomers are finding may not represent the full range of what is
out there.
"There are interesting and profound selection effects in the data,"
said Laughlin, who started the Systemic project with a small group of
collaborators.
The technique most often used to find extrasolar planets relies on
measuring slight wobbles in a star's motion caused by the
gravitational tug of an orbiting planet. This technique favors
configurations in which the orbiting planet is not only large, like
Jupiter, but also close to the star. As a result, these so-called
"hot Jupiters" are overrepresented in the current census of
extrasolar planets.
Other potential biases arise from factors that limit how observations
are made. Astronomers are often limited to blocks of telescope time
lasting only a few days, which means they cannot observe prospective
planetary systems as often as they would like. The limited geographic
locations of telescopes also limit what parts of the sky astronomers
can observe. As a result of these kinds of restrictions, some
planetary systems are studied more than others, and so the current
data on extrasolar planets does not yet fully reflect what is really
out there, Laughlin said.
To get a better handle on these problems, Laughlin and his
collaborators launched the Systemic project, in which public
participation will help create a virtual database of extrasolar
planetary systems. His team includes Aaron Wolf, who developed the
Systemic software as a UCSC undergraduate; graduate student Stefano
Meschiari; postdoctoral researcher Eugenio Rivera; and Paul Shankland
at the U.S. Naval Observatory.
Laughlin said he was inspired by the success of public participation
in other scientific research projects, such as SETI@home, where users
download a screensaver that uses their personal computer's processing
power to analyze radio telescope data. He wanted to do something
similar that would further stir public interest in astronomy. Instead
of just a screensaver, however, he wanted something that also engaged
the user.
"We wanted to involve the public in a meaningful way," Laughlin said.
The project involves a sophisticated simulation of the search for
planets. The researchers created a data set of 100,000 stars,
complete with many diverse planetary systems. Participants can
analyze this virtual galaxy with software available on the project
web site (<http://oklo.org>). Using the software,
volunteers can analyze the data for a target star, varying planetary
properties like mass, orbital shape, and period to find a
configuration that best fits the data. The web site includes a
tutorial on the software, called the Systemic Console, as well as a
blog, which Laughlin updates regularly.
The simulated search uses the same kind of planetary wobble data that
astronomers measure, and it also incorporates all the observational
biases they encounter when collecting real data. What the public
provides is a set of simulated observations the researchers can
compare with observations in the real world. No one knows how
extrasolar planets are distributed in the Milky Way, but the
researchers know the full range of planetary systems in the simulated
virtual galaxy. By comparing the simulated observations with the real
observations, the researchers hope to better understand how well, or
how poorly, the search process collects a census of extrasolar
planets.
"How good are we at detecting strange systems? Stars with three
planets instead of two? Two instead of one? There are a lot of
questions like this that can be addressed with a large-scale
simulation," Laughlin said.
And because it is a large-scale simulation, the participation of the
public is critical. Complicated systems with multiple planets require
a human eye and patience to arrive at an accurate description. It is
a time-consuming process that involves a lot of data.
"We need public participation because the most interesting systems
are very hard to decipher," said Laughlin. "Automated methods often
fail to adequately describe them."
Recruiting the public to do astronomical research is not new to
Laughlin, who helped start the Transitsearch project
(<http://www.transitsearch.org/>).
Transitsearch asked amateur astronomers to point their telescopes at
potential extrasolar systems and to search for events called
transits, when a planet passes in front of its star, slightly dimming
the starlight. Astronomers can learn about the size, composition, and
atmosphere of the planet just from the dimming of the light. Of
course, Transitsearch requires participants to have telescopes and
cameras. Systemic invites public participation without the need for
expensive equipment.
Systemic is now in an introductory phase to develop a reliable user
base. The first of the virtual data will not be released for another
month. Meanwhile, scientists have released real data of extrasolar
systems for people to analyze. Sky & Telescope magazine is sponsoring
a contest in which participants race to find the best configuration
of a planetary system, with a new set of data every two weeks.
Winners receive a star atlas.
Although the project started in January, the software and the web
site were not available until two months ago. So far, several hundred
people have already volunteered and are producing good results,
Laughlin said. In some cases, he said, volunteers have found better
descriptions of planetary systems than the astronomers.
While users have come from all walks of life, educators and students
form a major market for Systemic. The web site already receives 800
unique hits a day, Laughlin said. Eventually, he hopes to reach
10,000 users.
"I think it's realistic because the Internet is a global thing. We
have users from all over the world," he said.
As computers become more powerful in the coming decades, the
researchers hope to go beyond virtual data of planetary systems.
Laughlin said he envisions creating entire virtual worlds that people
can explore and that remain true to the laws of physics.
#####
Note to reporters: You may contact Laughlin at (831) 459-3208 or
laughlin@ucolick.org.
This release is available electronically at the following web site:
<http://press.ucsc.edu> .
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