What is S.O.L.A.R.I.S.?

Stellar Object Light Analysis & Retrieval Imaging System — a citizen-science exoplanet discovery project

S.O.L.A.R.I.S. is a free, distributed citizen-science project that searches for habitable exoplanets by analyzing real data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Anyone with a computer can contribute — the volunteer software runs in the background and uses spare computing power to search for new worlds.

  In short: S.O.L.A.R.I.S. lets ordinary people help discover planets that could harbor life. You download a small free program, and your computer automatically analyzes telescope data to search for Earth-like worlds orbiting distant stars.

54Planets Discovered

35,000+Stars Searched

35Habitable Zone

98.3%Top Earth Similarity

How does it work?

S.O.L.A.R.I.S. uses the transit method to detect exoplanets. When a planet passes in front of its host star, it blocks a tiny fraction of the star's light, causing a periodic dimming pattern called a transit. The software analyzes TESS light curves to find these patterns using two key techniques:

Box Least Squares (BLS) detection — scans for periodic box-shaped dips in brightness that indicate a transiting planet
Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) fitting — uses Bayesian statistics to determine precise orbital parameters including period, radius, temperature, and distance from the star

The pipeline focuses on M-dwarf stars (cool red dwarf stars) because their habitable zones are closer in, making transits more frequent and easier to detect. It also runs atmospheric spectroscopy analysis to check for biosignatures — chemical signs of possible life like oxygen/methane disequilibrium.

What has S.O.L.A.R.I.S. discovered?

As of March 2026, the project has discovered 54 exoplanet candidates across more than 35,000 stars analyzed. Of these, 35 orbit within their star's habitable zone — the region where liquid water could exist on the surface.

The most Earth-like candidate, SOLARIS-002 (TIC 103245015), has an Earth Similarity Index of 98.3% — with a radius of 1.02 Earth radii and an estimated surface temperature of -26°C. Several candidates also show potential biosignature detections, including oxygen, methane, ozone, and chlorophyll-analogue spectral signatures.

See the full list on the discoveries page.

How can I participate?

Volunteering is free and takes about one minute to set up:

Download the volunteer package (under 1 MB) for macOS, Windows, or Linux
Unzip and double-click the launcher — it installs dependencies automatically
Leave it running — your computer processes stars in the background, each taking 1–5 minutes

You need Python 3.9+, 4 GB of RAM, and an internet connection. The software only communicates with the SOLARIS server and NASA's MAST archive — it does not access any personal files.

Who created S.O.L.A.R.I.S.?

S.O.L.A.R.I.S. was created by Cassius Mehlhopt, a student and independent researcher from New Zealand. The project launched on 5 March 2026 and is not affiliated with NASA, though it uses publicly available NASA TESS data.

Is this real science?

S.O.L.A.R.I.S. uses real NASA TESS satellite data, established transit detection algorithms (BLS), and peer-reviewed statistical methods (MCMC). The discoveries are exoplanet candidates — they require follow-up observation by professional telescopes to be confirmed. The project follows the same general methodology used by professional planet-hunting surveys, applied through distributed volunteer computing.

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