OSCAAR is the name of a new NASA program for amateur astronomers to identify new planets outside our solar system. The search will be based on the observation of bright stars and on the record of slight decreases in their brightness due to the transit of celestial bodies that orbit around them and that come between the observer and the star. "Finding enough of the exoplanet candidates is only possible by carefully observing the brightness of thousands of stars simultaneously," explains Brett Morris, of the space agency's Goddard Space Flight Center, who assures that the brightness fluctuation is only one two or two. three percent, enough to be measured by the detectors that many amateur astronomers and academic institutions already have in their observing instruments.
Specifically, hobbyists who decide to participate in OSCAAR will need a telescope equipped with an electronic light detector or CCD and a computer with software capable of reading the CCD signal. As explained by Morris, participants will be able to apply differential photometry to find, above all, exoplanets of the 'hot Jupiter' type around nearby stars , since they are large planets and can be detected without too much difficulty with a flush telescope of soil during a six-hour observation session on any given night.
