Volunteer, Work-from-home-computer, Planet Hunters find new planet.

[GreenStormCloud]

http://blog.planethunters.org/

We recently posted news of a Planet Hunters planet discovered as part of a seven-planet system. Dubbed KOI-351 this system is a peculiar microcosm of our own Solar System, with small (probably rocky) worlds in the middle, and larger (probably gaseous) worlds on the outside. The major different being that the outermost planet in this system is as far from the star as Earth is from the Sun. The other six planets in this system were already known about, but thanks to volunteers on Planet Hunters (http://planethunters.org) we now think that there are seven worlds circling this stars, which is just a little brighter than our Sun.

To celebrate this fact I have created a model of the whole planetary system in Celestia, an awesome, cross-platform, open-source package that lets you explore space. You can download the Celestia files model directly here or watch the video below to be taken on a tour of KOI-351 and it’s seven worlds.

In this video, I’ve given the newly discovered Planet Hunters candidate some fetching green rings – which we do not have any evidence for or against. Also keep in mind that we know very little about what most exoplanets look like, so we’ve used artistic license to give them all different appearances, often using the surface of what might be analogue worlds in our Solar System. Maybe you can spot some familiar surfaces amongst them!

This system has some great features that make it interesting. The outermost world is roughly the the size of Jupiter but orbits at almost exactly the Earth-Sun distance of 1AU. A Jupiter-like world in an Earth-like orbit has been seen before in Planet Hunters discoveries. The middle planet in this system is at the same distance from this star as Mercury is from our Sun, but is six times as large. The rest of the planets whizz around in even smaller orbits. This star is a little hotter than our Sun so they are pretty scorching places with surfaces temperatures in the hundreds of degrees – nearly a thousand for the innermost planets.

Continued at link. Pictures and videos there too.

I am not the author of the blog. I am just an enthusiastic cheerleader/supporter. Planter Hunters is a subsection of www.zooniverse.org, an organization where volunteers can spend some time doing real science from home on their computers. Right now I am identifying animals that have been "caught" in camera traps on the Serengeti, then catalog their activity, if young are present, etc.

It is a fun way to relax before the computer and far more productive than playing a video game. I just thought it would be nice to share that a new planet has been found by volunteer home researchers.