Amateur astronomer discovered four exoplanets with two home PCs

As you know, Neptune, the eighth planet of the solar system, was literally discovered "at the tip of the pen." The fact is that the actual orbit of Uranus did not coincide with the calculated one, which pointed out to astronomers the possibility of the existence of a planet beyond the orbit of Uranus, which distorted the trajectory of the movement of the latter. French astronomer Urban Leverrier, after a series of calculations, calculated the actual trajectory of Uranus, and the possible location of the planet, which causes the mentioned distortions. "The planet from the tip of the pen," Neptune, was found within a day already through a telescope.

Pluto was similarly discovered, but it is no longer a planet, according to the decision of astronomers, so we will not write about it. So, our contemporary with you, amateur astronomer Peter Jalowiczor, broke a record by opening four exoplanets at once, using only his home computers (only two PCs).

Yes, our lover doesn’t have a telescope at all, and why should he, if the pictures taken by the most powerful telescopes of the most famous observatories of our planet are regularly uploaded to the Network? Peter spent the whole three years finding stars that met one single criterion. He was looking for luminaries whose behavior deviates from theory, and the reason for such deviations can only be the existence of exoplanets / exoplanets. He used the Doppler spectroscopy method (based on the Doppler effect, as you might guess) to detect exoplanets.

For three years, as mentioned above, the amateur astronomer spent almost all of his free time processing the data received by the team at the University of California. Astronomers from this university uploaded thousands of images that amateurs could use for their research. As you can see, the disinterestedness of professional astronomers has paid off, and scientists have added four more exoplanets to the catalogs thanks to the work of Peter. Now in the global catalog of the planet appear under the codes HD31253b, HD218566b, HD177830c, and HD99492c.

In an interview, Peter said that he prefers not to spend free time on computer games, like many of his friends, but to explore the vastness of the vast universe. Well, a laudable lesson, especially since Peter brought a certain benefit to science.

Via CNET