British teenagers on workplace experience at Keele University might have launch at least one potential exoplanet .
The object , which is described as a strong candidate for a humans outside the Solar System , is a Neptune - sized satellite that orbits a Sun - like star in 19 days , at a distance of 800 light - years away . It was discovered as part of " Project Tatooine " , which focused on the search for planets that orb two stars likeTatooinein Star Wars .
" The undertaking fee-tail the bookman rapidly assimilating a great hatful of novel noesis about star variability and astrophysical measurements , " said Professor Rob Jeffries , who hosted the work experience , in astatement .
There were 24 students attending the project , and they were divide into teams of six . Their job was to spot dominate binary ( two stars orb each other ) by calculate at sudden dip in a headliner ’s luminosity using datum from theKepler telescope .
The blank lookout station took stellar light mensuration every 30 minutes over the course of 75 day . Each squad looked for likely candidates among thousands oflight curves , and at the end of the week , they give their results to the other team and Keele ’s astrophysics group .
" It ’s been a fun week , and I ’ve meet new people , and you ’d never do this anywhere else . And because the information is all public , if I want to , I can now go home and do more inquiry myself , and ascertain more , " said 15 - year - old Josh , from Trentham High School , who made the find .
Another likely object was give away by a different student team . astonishingly , the second physical object is very close in size and orbital menses to the first candidate .
" We cerebrate this is probably another exoplanet prospect . And it ’s remarkably similar to the first one we find . This one ’s got an orbital menstruum of about 18 twenty-four hours , and is also about the size of Neptune , " said Professor Jeffries .
Some of the discoveries from the projection will be follow up next hebdomad using the 2.5 - meter ( 8.2 - metrical foot ) Isaac Newton Telescope in the Canary Islands . Soon , those potential uncovering might fall in the social rank of the 4,000 and counting exoplanets .
