How a Guy Found 4 New Planets Without a Telescope

An anonymous reader writes "Peter Jalowiczor is a gas worker from South Yorkshire, England. He's also the discoverer of four giant exoplanets, according to the University of California's Lick-Carnegie Planet Search Team. But he's not an astronomer and he doesn't even have a telescope. '...in 2005, astronomers at the university released millions of space measurements collected over several decades and asked enthusiasts to make of them what they would. ... From March 2007 Peter, 45, spent entire nights reading the data, working the figures, creating graphs. ... He then sent discrepancies he discovered back to the scientists in California where they were further analyzed to see if the quirks were caused by the existence of an exoplanet.'"

Re:So....

[Roger W Moore]

What have you done lately that was as cool?

Collided protons at over 99.999999% the speed of light to recreate the conditions about 100 femto-seconds after the Big Bang to see if they produce Dark Matter particles which make up about 23% of the Universe. Still that's my job so I still think it is really amazing that an amateur can make such valuable contributions to science...and of course being a Yorkshireman myself its always nice to see another do well!

However I am somewhat surprised that astronomers have not devised automatic algorithms to scan the data and look for signals like this. That's what we do with all our peta-bytes of particle physics data.

Re:So....

[Roger W Moore]

How do you know?!

The same way I know that you exist: by making reasonable inferences from the available data. In your case the only evidence I have of your existence is one Slashdot post. For the Big Bang there are multiple, independent data sources so currently I'd say that I'd be more inclined to believe in the existence of the Big Bang than you!

Meanwhile, a 10 year old girl finds a SuperNova ..

[gordguide]

Kathryn Gray, a 10 year old girl from New Brunswick, Canada, discovered a previously unknown SuperNova over the Christmas holidays. Neither Kathryn nor her dad own a telescope. They used images downloaded to her dad's computer, an astronomy buff. The images were taken via a backyard telescope owned by another amateur, David Lane of Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada).

You can do this yourself too

[Spinalcold]

Zooniverse has recently launched a new project using data from Kepler. You can create a profile at Planet Hunters [planethunters.org] and look for planet transits. IMO it's the most exciting project they've launched. Sure you're not naming the planets, but you are aiding the search.