Planets Found
The project went from a single Python script to a distributed volunteer network in under a week. Each day brought a new capability and, often, new discoveries.
Of the 54 candidates found so far, one stands out. SOLARIS-002, orbiting TIC 103245015, is the most Earth-like exoplanet candidate the pipeline has identified.
At 1.02 Earth radii, SOLARIS-002 is almost exactly Earth-sized. Its estimated equilibrium temperature of -26°C is cold but within the range where liquid water could exist, depending on atmospheric composition and greenhouse effects. For context, Earth's mean temperature without its greenhouse effect would be roughly -18°C.
Several of the 54 candidates show signs of O2/CH4 disequilibrium in their atmospheric spectra. A smaller subset exhibits reflectance patterns consistent with chlorophyll-analogue pigments — the kind of spectral "red edge" that photosynthetic organisms produce on Earth.
These are preliminary detections, not confirmations. But they highlight exactly why automated atmospheric analysis matters: at scale, the pipeline can flag the most scientifically interesting targets for follow-up observation.
S.O.L.A.R.I.S. — Stellar Object Light Analysis & Retrieval Imaging System — analyses publicly available NASA TESS light curves. The core pipeline runs two stages:
1. BLS Transit Detection. Box Least Squares fitting identifies periodic dips in stellar brightness — the telltale signature of a planet passing in front of its star.
2. MCMC Orbital Fitting. Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling refines the orbital parameters — period, radius ratio, inclination — and quantifies uncertainty. Only candidates that survive this rigorous statistical test are flagged.
The distributed computing system splits the sky into work units. Each volunteer's machine processes a batch of stars and returns results to the central server. No GPU required, no special hardware — just a laptop and an internet connection.
Week two is focused on scale and depth. Priorities include expanding the target list to fainter M-dwarf stars (which are more likely to host detectable Earth-sized planets), refining the biosignature module's sensitivity, and improving the volunteer onboarding experience.
Every star searched is another chance at finding something remarkable. With 200 billion stars in the Milky Way and only 35,000 examined so far, the search has barely begun.
Your computer could help discover the next Earth-like exoplanet. Download the free S.O.L.A.R.I.S. volunteer software and start contributing today.
Download S.O.L.A.R.I.S. Volunteer