Are you one of the authors of this paper? Email us from your institutional or work email address mentioning this article's arXiv ID and we'll verify you and give you edit access to this page.
The ExoClock project updated transit data for 620 exoplanets, increasing precision tenfold.
Abstract
Imagine a train timetable, but for distant planets orbiting other stars. The ExoClock project gathered data from thousands of observations to refine the transit times of 620 exoplanets. As a result, prediction accuracy improved tenfold, and half the planets got an updated schedule. Could this kind of open science reveal new worlds to us?
Links in the knowledge graph 1
A bus schedule drifts: if you don't check it, you'll miss your ride. Planets around other stars have the same problem – their crossings of the star's disk gradually shift. The ExoClock project pooled 30,000 observations from Earth and space to refine the schedule for 620 distant worlds. For 45% of the planets, transits were found to be off by hours.
The fussiest ones – 277 targets of the TESS mission – whip across the star in minutes or get lost in its glare. To spot them, astronomers synchronized dozens of small telescopes – like photographers trying to catch a group smile. The result: for 45% of planets, the transit schedule got an update, and the timing precision jumped tenfold. Some of them show transit timing variations – they get periodically nudged by the invisible gravity of neighbors, revealing hidden worlds.
Open workshop: all data and tools are available to anyone – from a scientist to a schoolchild.
Now James Webb and other giant telescopes can schedule their observations with surgical precision and never miss the moment when a planet steps into the light, allowing us to study its atmosphere.
🎯 Prediction accuracy improved 10-fold: now transit times can be forecast with an error of minutes, not hours.
