Planet Hunters Talk

About how often do people see actual transits?

  • Ella7777 by Ella7777

    This might be hard to answer, but around how often do people see actual transits?
    I want to know this so I can estimate if I'm missing a bunch or clicking too many false alarms.

    Also, about how long does an average transit last?

    Thanks in advance,

    Ell

    Posted

  • squirreldude by squirreldude

    Hi Ell,

    Planet hunters takes a set a of light curves and splits them up into different quarters, which are then cycled through for each individual to look at, each quarter is roughly about a month (28-30daysish), I think this is done for simplicity sakes, so people aren't overwhelmed by the amount of light curve data. so there are about 51ish quarters per total set of light curve data which is cycled through randomly, so you might be looking at a light curve from the same star at different times but the quarter is different. if you want to find curves with actual confirmed planets you can go here and cross reference that star with any to see if it's confirmed by nasa's scientists, https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/TblView/nph-tblView?app=ExoTbls&config=planets

    Posted

  • hawaiisunfun by hawaiisunfun

    Hi @Ella7777,

    I've worked on about 800 classifications and I could say almost every time I look at a classification, I will see possible transits. Rarer are ones with no transits. Finding a transiting planet occurs as often as the ones with no transits. My guess is that I see those an average of 1 out of 10-15 classifications. Hope this helps, appreciate the question, and happy hunting!

    Posted