Planodia: searching TESS light curves for planets

When a planet passes in front of its star, the star dims by a tiny amount for a few hours, and it does so again every orbit. NASA's TESS satellite has been watching millions of stars for exactly this since 2018. Planodia searches the brightness record of each star for repeating dips and ranks the signals it finds.

The search covers the full-frame light curves of the first extended mission, sector by sector, all stars at once. Every task is computed by two different volunteers whose results must agree, and all raw results will be published openly. Stars with strong signals are then checked by hand against known planets and eclipsing binaries.

659,000

light curves searched

0 / 3

sectors completed

122,546

stars with a periodic dip

34,238

of them with a strong signal

volunteers contributing

20 days

computing time so far

Progress by sector

A sector is one 27-day stretch of TESS observations. Light curves are downloaded and prepared sector by sector (the first, lighter bar), then searched by volunteers (the second bar). A second pass over the same light curves masks the strongest dip and searches again, to find further planets around the same star.

Sector	Light curves	Prepared	Searched	Second pass (more planets per star)
27	633,820	100%	88.3%	35.0%
28	430,737	77%	23.0%	—
55	1,385,258	56%	0.0%	—

Top contributors

#	Volunteer	Tasks completed
1	zombie67 [MM]	1,205
2	JagDoc	447
3	Falconet	402
4	Vato	272
5	WTBroughton	175
6	L@MiR	80
7	Hans Sveen	45
8	Stony666	36
9	vanos0512	14
10	LCB001	12
11	polaxis	8
12	mmonnin	8
13	Drago75	8
14	Aurum	8
15	Pizza4ever	6

Strongest signals so far

Stars whose brightness dips again and again on a fixed period. These are automatic detections: some will be known planets, many will turn out to be eclipsing binaries or instrument effects, which is what the hand check is for.

Star	Brightness (Tmag)	Period	Dip depth	Dip length	Dips seen	Strength
TIC 260970269	11.9	11.629 days	33.88%	3.8 hours	2	41.7
TIC 91313605	11.6	12.000 days	16.95%	7.2 hours	1	38.9
TIC 41591173	7.4	10.719 days	2.53%	1.9 hours	2	38.6
TIC 301631508	11.4	12.004 days	26.22%	7.2 hours	1	36.6
TIC 391900581	13.3	11.872 days	47.50%	3.8 hours	1	36.0
TIC 139248979	13.2	7.406 days	22.41%	3.8 hours	2	36.0
TIC 261257275	12.3	9.736 days	19.87%	3.8 hours	2	35.7
TIC 278081831	12.1	9.738 days	11.13%	3.8 hours	2	35.4
TIC 278023956	13.4	9.738 days	41.19%	3.8 hours	2	34.7
TIC 261376824	13.2	9.737 days	19.59%	3.8 hours	2	33.7
TIC 261262403	12.2	9.735 days	12.37%	3.8 hours	2	33.6
TIC 300653838	12.6	11.989 days	6.75%	7.2 hours	2	33.5
TIC 150429807	9.6	9.721 days	20.95%	1.9 hours	2	33.4
TIC 261204214	11.2	9.721 days	13.59%	3.8 hours	2	33.3
TIC 300292860	13.3	11.884 days	44.96%	3.8 hours	1	33.2
TIC 238196855	12.2	6.813 days	31.77%	1.9 hours	2	33.2
TIC 300292860	13.3	11.884 days	44.96%	3.8 hours	1	33.2
TIC 238196855	12.2	6.813 days	31.77%	1.9 hours	2	33.2
TIC 261007770	11.5	9.735 days	11.52%	3.8 hours	2	33.0
TIC 31379989	13.4	9.741 days	43.34%	3.8 hours	2	32.9

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Planodia: searching TESS light curves for planets