Help us profile the mysterious KELT-3b and TOI–560c exoplanets by analysing data from Cheops, a real ESA scientific satellite.
Menu
Help us profile the mysterious KELT-3b and TOI–560c exoplanets by analysing data from Cheops, a real ESA scientific satellite.
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.
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.
We have a case on our hands, of two mysterious exoplanets, and we need your help to profile them. Find out how you can use real satellite data to investigate an alien planet and become an exoplanet detective in the first ever ESA Education hackathon for secondary students.
The hackathon activities are available in 21 different languages.
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.
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.
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.
We have two mysterious exoplanets, and we need your help to profile them. In preparation for your hackathon, click on the case files to discover what we already know about our two targets: the puffy gas giant KELT-3b and the almost-tropical mini Neptune TOI-560c.
You can also investigate ESA’s satellite Cheops, and track it in the sky as it observes far away exoplanets!
Are you a teacher or educator? If you are not sure how to start, visit our resources section to find tailored classroom resources and other educational supporting materials for guidance.
Stay tuned! Throughout the year we will be releasing new materials with space experts and answering questions about exoplanets through the ask a scientist section.
Dust off your trench coat, put on your thinking hat and grab your magnifying glass. It’s time to join physical or online hackathon events and uncover the mysteries of our two exoplanets!
Using real data from ESA’s Cheops satellite, students will get a glimpse into the life of an exoplanet scientist, learning how to detect and characterise far away planets in an out-of-this-world detective story.
Find out more about how to join events in your area or host a hackathon. ESA’s hosted virtual hackathon will take place on 18 April 2023.
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.