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Citizen Science and Scientific Results from the World's Largest Network of Backyard Astronomers
  • +6
  • Franck Marchis,
  • Thomas Esposito,
  • Guillaume Blaclard,
  • Joe Asencio,
  • Valerie Klavans,
  • Daniel O Peluso,
  • Colleen Megowan-Romanowicz,
  • Carl Pennypacker,
  • Brad Carter
Franck Marchis
SETI Institute Mountain View

Corresponding Author:fmarchis@seti.org

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Thomas Esposito
SETI Institute
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Guillaume Blaclard
Unistellar
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Joe Asencio
SETI Institute
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Valerie Klavans
Unistellar
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Daniel O Peluso
SETI Institute
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Colleen Megowan-Romanowicz
American Modeling of Teacher Association
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Carl Pennypacker
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
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Brad Carter
University Southern Queenland
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Abstract

Thanks to the Unistellar network, citizen scientists and ordinary people all over the world can now enjoy the wonders of the night sky while also making important scientific discoveries. More than 5,000 people who own an eVscope—a digital, smart, and portable telescope—are doing precisely that thanks to a collaboration between Unistellar and scientists at the SETI Institute. The eVscope has already achieved many significant breakthroughs, including the detection by 79 observers of 85 transits by Jupiter-sized exoplanets, 281 asteroid occultations (including forty-five positive ones), and three shape and spin solutions for near-Earth asteroids. The network has also lent important support to NASA’s TESS mission by making transatlantic observations of an exoplanet transit, and to NASA’s Lucy mission by profiling Trojan asteroids this spacecraft will soon visit. These data are collected by observers in Europe, North America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, and the Unistellar network will soon expand to the rest of Asia and to South America, ensuring that each of these accomplishments is the product of coordinated efforts by hundreds or even thousands of observers across the globe. Our team is also working with NASA to develop several education programs involving the Girl Scouts of America, and community colleges around the US designed to connect teachers, professors, amateur astronomy clubs, and informal education partners. Our goal is to give every observer of the night sky the chance to experience the thrill of space exploration while we also educate young people to ensure that they are ready to carry humanity to and across the next frontier.