Disk Detective

Some stars are surrounded by disks - vast spinning clouds of gas, dust, and chunks of rock where planets form and evolve. NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission collected images of more than two billion objects in outer space. Now scientists need your help finding which of these objects are stars with disks. These objects will become the focus of future studies, including by the James Webb Space Telescope.

This long-running project discovered the Peter Pan disk phenomenon. Peter Pan disks are a kind of disk that retains gas far longer than most. More than 14 volunteers have become named coauthors of published papers through this project.  

WHO: All Ages 
WHERE: Online

 

Go to Project Website

What you’ll get to do:

  • View images of stars taken by multiple different telescopes.
  • Examine the images for background sources of light or other interference that might mimic light from a disk.
  • Connect with scientists and other citizen scientists to research good disk candidates in greater depth.

Requirements

  • Time: ~15 Minutes to complete online training
  • Equipment: Internet connected mobile device or computer
  • Knowledge: None. In-project training provided.

Get started!

  1. Visit our project website. 
  2. Learn: Click “Get Started” and complete the tutorial to learn how to recognize debris disks.
  3. Look for disks: Start looking for debris disks by comparing multiple images of the same star taken with different telescopes.
we see a grid of four views of the same part of space, each taken by a different telescope. The images have black backgrounds with white and blue blobs. From upper left and moving clockwise, the images were made by: unWISE w3 (the brightest image), unWISE w1 (only three distinct white spots and two blue), Pan-STARRS g (all the spots are still visible, but each is smaller), and 2MASS J (same spots of light, smaller yet). Each image has a bright spot in the center surrounded by two red circles

You'll compare images of the same star at different wavelengths to help figure out if that star has a disk.

Concentric rings surround a bright yellow circle in the center. The rings are yellow-orange in the middle, orange-red in the middle, and red and ragged on the outer ring. Text in the lower right corner of the image reads “Image of the HL Tau Disk from the ALMA Telescope” where ALMA stands for “Atacama Large Millimeter Array.”

Planets form from the vast clouds of gas, dust, and chunks of rock that surround some stars.

Learn More:

Join the Disk Detective Talk forum to learn from peers and scientists. When you've done 300 classifications, email diskdetectives@gmail.com and ask to join the advanced user group.

A cartoon white magnifying glass is centered on a yellow sphere with a ring around it against a black background. The magnified image in the center of the square logo is meant to be a star encircled by a debris disk.

Get to know the Disk Detectives!

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Steven Silverberg
Citizen Scientist/Postdoctoral Associate

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Alexandru Enachioaie
Citizen Scientist/Site Reliability Engineer for Altmetric

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Joshua “Josh” Hamilton
Citizen Scientist/Director of Adult Faith Formation

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Hugo Durantini Luca
Citizen Scientist/Astronomy Student

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Katharina Doll 
Citizen Scientist/University Research Assistant

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Marc Kuchner
Astrophysicist/Citizen Science Officer

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Jonathan Holden
Citizen Scientist

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Emily Burns-Kaurin
Citizen Scientist/College Student

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Milton Keller Drane Bosch 
Citizen Scientist/Medical Doctor (retired)

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Lily Wan Wah Lau
Citizen Scientist/Photographer