calico852

Inspiration

What it does

calico852 outputs stars that display a long-term dimming trend, which is not typically observed on the main sequence of stellar evolution.

How I built it

I used the MAST Kepler Field of View search form to acquire all the target stars that were continuously observed by the satellite and were bright enough to have been observed historically. I converted this list into a format that would be accepted by the DASCH website, and downloaded files with all recorded magnitudes for the stars. I ran linear regression on the magnitudes over the observed timescale, splitting the data at 1962 to avoid the confounding influence of the Menzel gap. I displayed the Kepler Input Catalog identification numbers for all stars that exhibited dimming behavior both before and after the Menzel gap.

Challenges I ran into

I encountered difficulty with the DASCH archive request form and opening tabs in the browser programmatically.

What I learned

I learned how to download and work through large sets of data with this project.

What's next for calico852

I plan to read the data from the DASCH website programmatically, make a more attractive user interface, display the significance of the observed dimming trend, and cross-reference the outputs with lists of known variable stars and eclipsing binaries.

Built With

• java