Systemic (amateur extrasolar planet search project)
Encyclopedia
Systemic is a research project designed to search data for extrasolar planet
s using amateur astronomer
s. The project utilizes a downloaded console provided on the Systemic web site allowing users to sort through data set
s in search of characteristics which may reveal the presence of a planet within a planetary system
.
Volunteers can choose to search simulated or actual planetary systems. The simulations are used to help Systemic gain a deeper understanding of real extrasolar planets. The real Solar System
and the Galilean moons of Jupiter's natural satellites
(hidden among the "challenge" data sets) are among the more than 450 data sets of real, and 520 simulated, star systems.
The systemic program itself is programmed in Java
for ease in running on multiple Operating Systems. The program is available as an online applet or for download to be run at home.
The program presents a data set for a system and some tools to help analyze the data and some feedback on the "goodness of fit" and "long term stability" of the currently defined system. The data set is the radial velocity
derived from doppler measurements of the star (or similar object) over time. Some data sets look like a sinusoidal curve while others seem far more complex. Any radial velocity is presumed to be from the gravitational tug(s) of possibly multiple bodies who combine to create the specific data curve. The reason the program has to manipulated by the user is that the complexities of multi-body orbits are not solvable to unique answers. While some star systems could be resolved to a simple pair of bodies most will not. The systemic software implements several ways of calculating orbital mechanics - from the simplistic Keplerian laws
to an implementation of Runge–Kutta methods
.
Results one obtains can be uploaded and are analyzed independently for goodness of fit and stability and are posted among the proposed solutions for that system. If a result is found to be unstable it is remove the from the list of candidate solutions though it is possible a particular system really is in a period of transition and instability (presumed to be a rare condition) so great that planets would be ejected from the system.
. There are some 20 "unique" posted possible solutions with only a general idea of "goodness of fit" to help decide favored solutions (the best solution posted so far is by user EricFDiaz who has a three planet system to explain the curve of the velocities of the star over time.) It must be understood results from using systemic are not a discovery, just a possible fit to the data. It could be right dead on, only kind of right, or not even in the ball park of whatever is eventually found, if anything.
Extrasolar planet
An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside the Solar System. A total of such planets have been identified as of . It is now known that a substantial fraction of stars have planets, including perhaps half of all Sun-like stars...
s using amateur astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
s. The project utilizes a downloaded console provided on the Systemic web site allowing users to sort through data set
Data set
A data set is a collection of data, usually presented in tabular form. Each column represents a particular variable. Each row corresponds to a given member of the data set in question. Its values for each of the variables, such as height and weight of an object or values of random numbers. Each...
s in search of characteristics which may reveal the presence of a planet within a planetary system
Planetary system
A planetary system consists of the various non-stellar objects orbiting a star such as planets, dwarf planets , asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and cosmic dust...
.
Volunteers can choose to search simulated or actual planetary systems. The simulations are used to help Systemic gain a deeper understanding of real extrasolar planets. The real Solar System
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
and the Galilean moons of Jupiter's natural satellites
Jupiter's natural satellites
Jupiter has 64 confirmed moons, giving it the largest retinue of moons with "reasonably secure" orbits of any planet in the Solar System. The most massive of them, the four Galilean moons, were discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei and were the first objects found to orbit a body that was neither...
(hidden among the "challenge" data sets) are among the more than 450 data sets of real, and 520 simulated, star systems.
The systemic program itself is programmed in Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
for ease in running on multiple Operating Systems. The program is available as an online applet or for download to be run at home.
The program presents a data set for a system and some tools to help analyze the data and some feedback on the "goodness of fit" and "long term stability" of the currently defined system. The data set is the radial velocity
Radial velocity
Radial velocity is the velocity of an object in the direction of the line of sight . In astronomy, radial velocity most commonly refers to the spectroscopic radial velocity...
derived from doppler measurements of the star (or similar object) over time. Some data sets look like a sinusoidal curve while others seem far more complex. Any radial velocity is presumed to be from the gravitational tug(s) of possibly multiple bodies who combine to create the specific data curve. The reason the program has to manipulated by the user is that the complexities of multi-body orbits are not solvable to unique answers. While some star systems could be resolved to a simple pair of bodies most will not. The systemic software implements several ways of calculating orbital mechanics - from the simplistic Keplerian laws
Kepler's laws of planetary motion
In astronomy, Kepler's laws give a description of the motion of planets around the Sun.Kepler's laws are:#The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci....
to an implementation of Runge–Kutta methods
Runge–Kutta methods
In numerical analysis, the Runge–Kutta methods are an important family of implicit and explicit iterative methods for the approximation of solutions of ordinary differential equations. These techniques were developed around 1900 by the German mathematicians C. Runge and M.W. Kutta.See the article...
.
Results one obtains can be uploaded and are analyzed independently for goodness of fit and stability and are posted among the proposed solutions for that system. If a result is found to be unstable it is remove the from the list of candidate solutions though it is possible a particular system really is in a period of transition and instability (presumed to be a rare condition) so great that planets would be ejected from the system.
Example Analysis
The default system the systemic software opens with is "14Her" or 14 Herculis14 Herculis
14 Herculis or 14 Her is an orange dwarf star approximately 59 light-years away in the constellation Hercules. Because of its apparent magnitude, the star cannot be seen with the naked eye...
. There are some 20 "unique" posted possible solutions with only a general idea of "goodness of fit" to help decide favored solutions (the best solution posted so far is by user EricFDiaz who has a three planet system to explain the curve of the velocities of the star over time.) It must be understood results from using systemic are not a discovery, just a possible fit to the data. It could be right dead on, only kind of right, or not even in the ball park of whatever is eventually found, if anything.
Team
Systemic is designed, and run by:- Greg Laughlin — University of California Santa Cruz
- Aaron Wolf — Caltech
- Stefano Meschiari — University of California Santa Cruz
- Eugenio Rivera — University of California Santa Cruz
- Paul Shankland — US Naval Observatory
See also
- BOINC
- Einstein@HomeEinstein@HomeEinstein@Home is a volunteer distributed computing project hosted by the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics . The project is directed by Bruce Allen...
- Grid computingGrid computingGrid computing is a term referring to the combination of computer resources from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve a large number of files...
- List of distributed computing projects
- Methods of detecting extrasolar planetsMethods of detecting extrasolar planetsAny planet is an extremely faint light source compared to its parent star. In addition to the intrinsic difficulty of detecting such a faint light source, the light from the parent star causes a glare that washes it out...
- PlanetQuestPlanetQuestPlanetQuest is a grid computing project for discovering new planets and classifying stars from Earth-based observatories' images.-Overview:The PlanetQuest project is currently still under development, and will utilize the BOINC platform.To search for new planets, PlanetQuest developed the Transit...
- Search for Extra-Terrestrial IntelligenceSETIThe search for extraterrestrial intelligence is the collective name for a number of activities people undertake to search for intelligent extraterrestrial life. Some of the most well known projects are run by the SETI Institute. SETI projects use scientific methods to search for intelligent life...