Scientists, for several years, have looked for ways to include the interested public in research projects online. The idea has been to foster understanding and enthusiasm for science while allowing investigators to get more done by utilizing thousands of volunteers.
The latest such project comes from the good folks at Planetuniverse.org, and uses data from the Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft. Kepler searches for planets orbiting other stars by looking for transits-- times when a planet passes between Kepler and the planet's parent star. Such events cause dips in the amount of light from a star that reaches Kepler.
Finding a planet therefore becomes a pattern recognition problem. The human mind is very good at recognizing patterns. So, those who participate in this project will be given Kepler data to look through. If they find a pattern, they just might have found the latest exoplanet-- possibly even a new Earth. Of course, NASA will be doing the same thing, but it will be using powerful computers and custom-written software. Besides finding new worlds, finding out how the human mind fares against computers in this area should be interesting.
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