Hard-up astronomers are raising funds for research by selling the only wares they have: the stars.
A nonprofit organisation has started an adopt-a-star programme to raise money for an international research consortium to analyse data from .
The programme, which is not affiliated with NASA, is called 鈥溾�� to echo Carl Sagan鈥檚 description of Earth as seen from space. It encourages donors to pick one of 100,000 stars in Kepler鈥檚 field of view that show promise for hosting planets.
Advertisement
For $10, you 鈥� and you alone 鈥� can plant your personal flag in that star on . As Kepler makes new discoveries, you will get email updates about your star and its potential planets.
鈥淭here are plenty of phony name-a-star things on the web, but I think we were the first scientists to use this sort of model for fundraising, and as a public outreach tool,鈥� says project leader of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to educate people about what the Kepler mission does, and to get them excited about the quest for other Earths.鈥�
Measuring sizes
The money raised will go to the , an international group of researchers who study the seismology of stars. The group cannot get NASA funding to support its research because the agency can鈥檛 fund foreign organisations.
鈥淲e鈥檙e always short of funding, of course, as scientists,鈥� says consortium leader Jorgen Christensen-Dalsgaard of Aarhus University in Denmark.
The consortium will help the Kepler mission pin down the size of the planets it finds. Kepler finds planets by watching for the dip in a star鈥檚 brightness when the planet crosses in front of it. Known as transits, these events can only reveal the ratio between the planet鈥檚 size and that of its star. To find the planet鈥檚 absolute size, they鈥檒l need to know the size of the star.
Sound waves
But Kepler will observe some stars frequently enough that scientists will be able to detect pulsations in the star. Convection on the star鈥檚 surface can cause these pulsations by sending waves echoing through the star鈥檚 interior.
鈥淲e鈥檒l use those pulsations the way seismologists use earthquakes on Earth to measure the internal properties of the star,鈥� Metcalfe says. 杏吧原创s can use pulsations to measure the radius of the star to within a few per cent, giving NASA a way to determine the size of the planet.
Pulsations can also help determine the stars鈥� ages, which can help give an idea of how planetary systems form over time.
The researchers may even be able to detect non-transiting planets that the main Kepler team would miss, if the planet is massive enough to make the star wobble towards and away from Earth.
Stellar scientists see Kepler鈥檚 data as a windfall. 鈥淲e see this as a fantastic opportunity to get data on stellar interiors and stellar processes basically for free, because it鈥檚 the same kind of data we鈥檙e using,鈥� Christensen-Dalsgaard says.
$1 million
鈥淲ith Kepler鈥檚 sensitivity, we鈥檒l get unprecedented observations of these variable stars that we鈥檝e tried to understand from the ground,鈥� Metcalfe says.
Christensen-Dalsgaard roughly estimates that the consortium will need about $1 million, give or take a factor of two, to pay scientists鈥� salaries and bring them together at conferences. If all 100,000 stars sell, they鈥檒l make exactly that. Interest has been high so far, but Christensen-Dalsgaard doubts they鈥檒l sell all of them.
What about the planets that Kepler has already detected? Last week, the Kepler team announced they had detected three previously known planets, confirming that the telescope is operating as it should.
鈥淭hose are reserved for a special purpose,鈥� Metcalfe says. Initially he tried to get television personality to adopt one, but the comedian hasn鈥檛 responded. Metcalfe isn鈥檛 sure what to do with those planets yet 鈥� but he says, 鈥渋t鈥檚 gonna be good鈥�.
