Citizen scientists, that is, people outside the scientific field, working with scientists at various stages of a research program, successfully identified thousands of previously unknown pairs of variables by stars.

This new discovery helps space researchers to identify other variable stars, which are a rare phenomenon.

Variable stars are the only case for which the causes of changes in the brightness of the stars are known with certainty.

The two bodies that make up the system roam around their common center of mass due to gravitational attraction and, if the level to which their orbits belong to the straight observation (or forms a slight angle with it), when one and when the other star is inserted between the observer and the second star.

These new pairs of variables by stars who have been identified are a valuable source of data for astrophysicists, who raise issues of fundamental importance for research, measurable properties of these star pairs and the information they carry on the history of shaping and destroying.

As it turns out, these multi -star systems can also help in the current search for exoplanets, which are probably revolving around the stars. This Citizens’ Science Program, Eclipsing Binary Patrol, validates images from NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Satellite) mission. The satellite, launched in 2018, is “extremely capable of detecting a variety of stars,” the researchers write in a pre -release that describes the initiative.

Scientists using Machine Learning identified about 1.2 million potential variable stars.

In total, citizens scientists have identified 10,001 variable stars. Of these, 7,936 were previously unknown.

Although the Machine Learning tool can identify potential variable stars, the researchers knew that they would have to do this identification and manually, controlling hundreds of thousands of images of events that could be an eclipse and distinguishing which images.

“Fortunately,” the researchers write, “volunteers come from all the social strata that helps to tackle the ever -increasing volume of publicly available astronomical data.”

The project is an example of how people and computers can work together, Veselin Kostov, a researcher at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Seti Institute and head of the work in a press release, said in a press release. ‘I look forward to looking for [στους μεταβλητούς δι’εκλείψεων αστέρες] For exoplanets! “