Feel like a spot of planet-hunting? Here's 1,600 suns worth of data

Here's a treat for amateur exoplanet-hunters and experts alike: 20 years' worth of observations from the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii, complete with application and tutorial. The data release, led by the Carnegie Institution for Science, includes 61,000 measurements of more than 1,600 nearby stars. According to participant …

[John Smith 19]

Such a pity there's no way to get paid for running part of the worlds largest cluster.

But then I thought the same thing a decade ago and still nothing has happened on that front.

<sigh>

I wonder what these numbers do to the Drake Equation.

[Rich 11]

Re: Such a pity there's no way to get paid for running part of the worlds largest cluster.

I wonder what these numbers do to the Drake Equation.

Set Fp to something between 0.1 and 1.0, I guess. ;-)

[Tom 7]

Re: Such a pity there's no way to get paid for running part of the worlds largest cluster.

Do you not think it would immediately cost more than it should as people ripped it off.

As for the Drake Equation - it needs more data to define the ballpark that would be necessary to get anywhere near a solution that would show it needs a lot more data to to bring that ballpark into our universe.

[andy gibson]

Elite

I always like comparing Planet discoveries with my Frontier Elite map:

http://www.classicamiga.com/images/stories/jreviews/games/F/manuals/Frontier_Elite2(map)(scan).jpg

[TVU]

"I wonder what these numbers do to the Drake Equation."

"Set Fp to something between 0.1 and 1.0, I guess. ;-)"

The discoveries so far indicate that planets are common round single stars and possible in some multiple star systems so my current estimate, based on what's been found so far, is that Fp = 0.3 or greater.

"I always like comparing Planet discoveries with my Frontier Elite map:

http://www.classicamiga.com/images/stories/jreviews/games/F/manuals/Frontier_Elite2(map)(scan).jpg"

Nice graphic! :-)