2014 programme

Project Exo Planet

Chris Rudge, Mike Thompson, Junior Section of the ASV

ASV

The goal of Project ExoPlanet is to observe and measure the light curve of a transiting exoplanet.

An extra-solar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside our solar system. For many years their existence was hotly debated in astronomical circles. The first confirmed exoplanet discovery came in 1992, when several planets orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12 were detected. Over the past few years, the number of confirmed exoplanet discoveries has exploded to almost 1000.

In 2013, the ASV Junior Section wanted to get involved in "real science" projects and chose Project ExoPlanet as its first project, scheduled to complete by the end of the year. This project will attempt to locate the parent star of a known exoplanet, image it using professional-grade equipment and measure the changes in its magnitude as the exoplanet transits its face. This is a challenging project as it requires careful research, planning and preparation to ensure that imaging runs capture the transit precisely. Then, once the data have been collected, processing the data to get an accurate result. And we will have observed a planet in another solar system.