A remarkable collaboration between professional researchers and citizen scientists has yielded unprecedented insights into the exoplanet WASP-77 A b, paving the way for groundbreaking discoveries in the field of astrophysics.
Unraveling the Mysteries of Transiting Exoplanets
When an exoplanet – a planet orbiting around a star other than our Sun — passes in front of its host star, the star’s light is reduced by a tiny amount during what astronomers call a transit. These transits yield a wealth of data about the physical and orbital properties of the exoplanet.
But forecasting the exact time of such a transit can be quite difficult due to complications related to the planet´s precise eclipse orbit and any dynamic behavior by the hosting star. And that’s where citizen science collaboration works its magic. By pooling resources from amateur planet-chasers and professional researchers, this group of scientists was able to leverage the best data yet on the exoplanet WASP-77 A b.
A Fruitful Collaboration
A paper led by Arizona State University researcher Federico R. Noguer, and published collaboratively with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), has been newly released revealing new discoveries in the study of these systems. This included data from the Exoplanet Watch and ExoClock citizen science projects, follow-up observations of TESS candidates using both the Exoplanet Transit Database, as well as archival and new ground-based observations conducted with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope (HST), James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and ESO’s La Silla Observatory.
That holistic approach enabled the team to pin down the properties — both physical and orbital — of exoplanet WASP-77 A b with unparalleled precision. Importantly, these exact measurements are required for predicting transit events that will happen in the future more so than now to plan spacecraft observations and atmospheric modeling.
Conclusion
The shared data and combined labors of professional researchers and citizen scientists working together have allowed us to achieve a new level of knowledge about the exoplanet WASP-77 A b, that will allow more accurate predictions for future follow-up observations when learning more about its atmosphere. This success story serves as proof that citizen science can make a big difference even at the cosmic scale.
