{"id":242417,"date":"2025-06-27T01:58:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T15:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/get-involved\/citizen-science\/nasa-citizen-scientists-find-new-eclipsing-binary-stars\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T01:58:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T15:58:43","slug":"nasa-citizen-scientists-find-new-eclipsing-binary-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=242417","title":{"rendered":"NASA Citizen Scientists Find New Eclipsing Binary Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

When two stars orbit one another in such a way that one blocks the other\u2019s light each time it swings around, that\u2019s an eclipsing binary. A new paper<\/a> from NASA\u2019s Eclipsing Binary Patrol citizen science project presents more than 10,000 of these rare pairs \u2013\u00a010,001 to be precise. These objects will help future researchers study the physics and formation of stars and search for new exoplanets.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether, humans and computers excel at investigating hundreds of thousands of eclipsing binaries,\u201d said Dr. Veselin Kostov, research scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the SETI Institute and lead author of the paper. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to search them for exoplanets!\u201d<\/p>\n

To make their catalog, the team examined data from NASA\u2019s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which surveyed nearly the entire sky looking for objects with varying brightness. They used a two-tiered approach, combining the scalability of artificial intelligence with the nuanced judgment of human expertise. First, advanced machine learning methods efficiently sifted through hundreds of millions of targets observed by TESS, identifying hundreds of thousands of promising candidates. Then, humans scrutinized the most interesting systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of the 10,001 objects they listed in their paper, 7,936 are new eclipsing binaries they discovered. The rest were already known, but the team made new measurements of the timing of their eclipses.
You can join the Eclipsing Binary Patrol team too! Just go to the project\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Eclipsing Binary stars change in brightness over time as they orbit one another and block each other\u2019s light.<\/div>\n
Credit: NASA GSFC<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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