Hack an Exoplanet is an inquiry-based astronomy project on planets outside the Solar System. By completing this set of activities, secondary students will get the opportunity to analyse real satellite data collected by Cheops and hack these mysterious alien worlds. This activity is suggested for teams of students aged 14 to 19 years old.
Set of two quizzes to introduce the most important concepts and test your exoplanet pre-knowledge
Duration: < 30 minutes
We need your help to profile mysterious exoplanets using real satellite data. Follow the step-by-step guide and complete the casefiles
In this set of three classroom activities you learn more about transit models and how to build your own
Use real satellite data to profile these mysterious exoplanets observed by Cheops
Hot Jupiter
Mini Neptune
Super Earth and Neptune-like Giant
Are you a teacher or educator? If you are not sure how to start the investigation activity with your students, visit our educators guide page that includes information and support on how to present the hack an exoplanet activity to your students. The activities can be done in the classroom, at home or in a hackathon-format.
For extra educational supporting materials, visit our resources section to find tailored classroom resources and other educational supporting materials for guidance, such as videos and guides.
This course introduces teachers and educators to exoplanets and demonstrates how they can incorporate exoplanet science into their teaching across a range of subjects such as mathematics and physics. The course is organised into three modules and a webinar recording.
In early 2023, ESA’s Cheops (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) observed two exoplanet targets, KELT-3b and TOI-560c. By joining a Hack an Exoplanet event, teams of secondary students will get the opportunity to analyse real satellite data collected by Cheops and hack these mysterious alien worlds. This activity is targeted at teams of students aged 14 to 19 years old.
Online and physical hackathons are being organised during April, May and June 2023, and you can even host your own hackathon at your school!
Find out below more about each event.
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[leaflet-marker address=”The Netherlands,Noordwijk”] ESA
ESA Hack an Exoplanet virtual hackathon event – watch the recording now on the virtual event page!
Type: Virtual
Language: English
Address: Noordwijk, Netherlands”
Date: 18/04/2023
From: 14:00 to 17:00
https://hackanexoplanet.esa.int/virtual-event/ [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Portugal,Lisbon”] ESERO Portugal
In person hackathon event. Watch the event summary video here: https://youtu.be/7Qk5sqRf-TQ
Type: Physical
Language: Portuguese
Address: Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande 016, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal”
Date: 15/04/2023
From: 10:00 to 19:00
https://www.esero.pt/hack-an-exoplanet/ [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Czech Republic,Prague”] Planetum – Observatory and Planetarium Prague
Online event for Czech students for the Hack an Exoplanet project.
Type: Virtual
Language: Czech
Address: Prague, Czech Republic”
Date: 04/04/2023
From: 17:00 to 20:00
https://www.planetum.cz/ [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Colombia,Bogotá D.C.”] Planetario de Bogotá
In person ‘Hack an Exoplanet’ event in Planetario de Bogotá, Colombia.
Type: Physical
Language: Spanish
Address: Cl 26b #5-93″
Date: 13/05/2023
From: 08:00 to 12:00
https://www.planetariodebogota.gov.co/ [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Canada,Mississauga”] Indus Space Inc.
Hybrid format hackathon where Canadian high-school students learn about exoplanets and STEM careers.
Type: Hybrid virtual and physical
Language: English
”
Date: 07/06/2023
From: 18:00 to
https://indusspace.ca/ [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Romania,”] Romanian Science Festival
Virtual hackathon led by two Romanian scientists, experts in exoplanets. Watch the recording here: https://youtu.be/3z5q2gF5O0E
Type: Virtual
Language: Romanian
”
Date: 04/05/2023
From: 18:00 to 21:00
https://www.facebook.com/RomanianScienceFestival/ [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”France,Périgueux”] Lycée Bertran de Born
Dans le cadre d’une journée cordées de la réussite, accueil de collégiens et lycéens de la région.
Type: Physical
Language: French, English
Address: 1, rue charles mangold, 24000 Périgueux”
Date: 15/05/2023
From: 09:00 to 16:00
https://etablissementbertrandeborn.net/ [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Colombia,Bogotá”] Oficina de Olimpiadas Colombianas Astronomía y Astrofísica
Virtual activity with students from all over Colombia of Colombian Olympiads
Type: Hybrid virtual and physical
Language: Español
Address: Calle 58a # 37 – 94″
Date: 06/06/2023
From: 14:00 to 18:00
http://oc.uan.edu.co/ [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Colombia,Bogotá”] Oficina de Olimpiadas Colombianas Astronomía y Astrofísica
Hybrid activity with students from the Colombian Astronomy, Astrophysics and Astronautics Olympiads
Type: Hybrid virtual and physical
Language: Español
Address: Calle 58a # 37 – 94″
Date: 11/05/2023
From: 14:00 to 18:00
http://oc.uan.edu.co/ [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Colombia,Armenia”] Grupo Kepler4
Presentar análisis y conclusiones de forma científica sobre exoplanetas detectados por Cheops
Type: Hybrid virtual and physical
Language: Español
Address: Cl. 48, Armenia, Quindío”
Date: 03/05/2023
From: 11:30 to 15:30
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK-X2x15MU0zScp5a7uSbTA [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Spain,Madrid”] ESA and ESERO Spain
Hands-on Session. An educational initiative to promote the importance of research about exoplanets and the role of ESA on this field to the Spanish educational community. Aimed at supporting Spanish teachers with the information. . .
Type: Virtual
Language: Spanish
Address: Virtual”
Date: 30/05/2023
From: 17:00 to 18:00
https://esero.es/desafio-hackea-un-exoplaneta/ [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Spain,Madrid”] ESA and ESERO Spain
Informative Session. An educational initiative to promote the importance of research about exoplanets and the role of ESA on this field to the Spanish educational community. Aimed at supporting Spanish teachers with the. . .
Type: Virtual
Language: Spanish
Address: Virtual”
Date: 16/05/2023
From: 17:00 to 18:00
https://esero.es/desafio-hackea-un-exoplaneta/ [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”The Netherlands,Noordwijk”] ESA Education
ESA Education information session for educators, and introduction to the hackathon materials.
Type: Virtual
Language: English
Address: Virtual”
Date: 03/04/2023
From: 14:00 to 16:30
www.esa.int/education [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Sweden,Stockholm”] ESERO Sweden
Information session organised by ESERO Sweden for the Swedish Science Centres
Type: Virtual
Language: English
Address: Virtual”
Date: 03/05/2023
From: 13:30 to 15:00
http://www.esero.se [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Canada,Toronto”] ESA as part of the AstroEdu Conference
Hack an exoplanet: Bringing real satellite data into the classroom! Workshop for the participants of the AstroEdu conference.
Type: Hybrid virtual and physical
Language: English
”
Date: 11/05/2023
From: 13:30 to 15:00
https://astroeducon.org/2023/ [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Czech Republic,Prague”] Planetum + TEREZA (Program Globe)
Join our student workshop and discover how to calculate the habitable zone of exoplanets, and explore the conditions necessary for supporting life on these distant worlds.
Capacity is 30 secondary students. Workshop will be led by. . .
Type: Physical
Language: Czech
Address: Stefanik Observatory, Strahovska 205, 118 00 Prague 1″
Date: 26/05/2023
From: 10:00 to 13:00
https://badatele.cz/cz/badatelska-konference-2023 [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Romania,Timisoara”] CoderDojo Timisoara
Our Hack an Exoplanet event will take place as a spacetech track of MegaDojo Timisoara 2023, a 300+ kids event of the CoderDojo Timisoara Metropolitan Area Network.
Type: Physical
Language: Romanian, English
Address: Aleea Studentilor, nr. 2″
Date: 20/05/2023
From: to
[/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Spain,Sabadell”] Sabadell Astronomical Society
Hackathon Híbrida. Liderat per i per a la comunitat jove d’astronomia amateur d’AstroSabadell, en col·laboració del Grup d’Exoplanetes.
Hybrid Hackathon. Led by and for the young community of amateur astronomers at AstroSabadell,. . .
Type: Hybrid virtual and physical
Language: Catalan
Address: C/ Prat de la Riba, s/n (Parc Catalunya) – 08206 Sabadell (Barcelona)”
Date: 10/05/2023
From: 17:00 to 21:00
https://astrosabadell.org/ca/ [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Czech Republic,Prague”] Planetum – Observatory and Planetarium Prague and ESERO Czech Republic
Another online exoplanet session with experts presenting distant worlds exploration, planet masses, orbits and habitable zones calculations. Registration is needed. Teleconference software ZOOM will be used. Capacity is 100 young. . .
Type: Virtual
Language: Czech
Address: Prague, Czech Republic”
Date: 16/05/2023
From: 18:00 to 20:00
https://forms.gle/mw9aSd1BQGot7cCfA [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Bolivia,La Paz”] Planetario Max Schreier
The local planetarium will host the event, giving support to bolivian students and providing outreach about the event. We will organice an in-person inaugural ceremony and then all the students will mostly work online, this will. . .
Type: Hybrid virtual and physical
Language: Spanish
Address: Calle Federico Suazo #1976, La Paz, Bolivia”
Date: 10/06/2023
From: 08:00 to 21:00
http://planetario.umsa.bo [/leaflet-marker][leaflet-marker address=”Czech Republic,Prague”] Planetum – Observatory and Planetarium Prague and ESERO Czech Republic
24 hours long hackathon focusing on exoplanets exploration. Student teams in recommended age 14 – 19 years will learn how to calculate all the necessary parameters for the Hack an Exoplanet challenge and much more. During the. . .
Type: Physical
Language: Czech
Address: Kralovska obora 233, Prague 7″
Date: 02/06/2023
From: 17:00 to 23:50
https://forms.gle/azht2Ju5EPJuJW937 [/leaflet-marker][zoomhomemap !fit]
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All teachers and educators are welcome to organise or join an Hack an Exoplanet activity with your teams of students. Find out below how you can join or host an event.
If you are from Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden you can find out more about activities in your country, by contacting your national contact points.
Join an existing event organised by a different entity.
For example the ESA Hack an Exoplanet virtual hackathon event
Create your own event (private or public).
For example as part of the school science week or as a classroom activity
If you are from Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden you can find out more about activities in your country, by contacting your national contact points.
Duration: 2h 30m
Language: English
During this virtual hackathon our team of experts will guide you in discovering how to analyse the Cheops data to uncover the size, orbital period and distance, habitability, and composition of these two distant worlds. Follow along to uncover the properties of the exoplanets and become a real exoplanet detective.
You can present Challenge 1, the analysis of KELT-3b, directly to your students with this virtual event.
After the hackathon, submit your project for a chance to win the Best Project Prize. The winning teams will receive ESA goodies and participate in a webinar with 2019 Nobel Prize winner Didier Queloz and ask him questions live! The webinar will take place on 17 July 2023, at 14h CEST.
Didier is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Cambridge and ETH Zurich. He is one of the originators of the “exoplanet revolution” in astrophysics. In 1995, as part of his PhD, he and his supervisor announced the first discovery of a giant planet orbiting another sun-like star outside the Solar System.