NASA announced that a new star system was discovered and that it has seven exoplanets. Three out of the seven are found within the habitable zone, making them potentially suitable for life.
Since the revelation, scientists and even the public expressed interest in the Trappist-1 star system. NASA catered to the demand for information by releasing raw data from its observation of the exoplanets in the new star system.
The raw data was collected by NASA's K2 Campaign 12 and can be downloaded from the Kepler Science official website. The images and files were uncalibrated, meaning those who wanted to see the images is required to perform some conversion in order to get a glimpse of the exoplanets in the Trappist-1 star system.
Engadget reports that the 11-by-11 pixel of the dwarf star was taken on Feb. 22. To use the free data, NASA reminds the public that it requires formatting. The raw data released were not smear-corrected, flat fielded and bias-subtracted, and may even include images with poor quality that aren't flagged yet.
Earlier this month, NASA already released travel posters of the Trappist-1 star system. This time, the agency wants everyone to see what the exoplanets look like in real life by releasing the raw files from the observations. However, NASA's disclaimer was included in the release; the final, vetted and fully calibrated images will be released this May.
The images will help astronomers across the globe work on their ground-based observations using telescopes to further analyze the exoplanets found in Trappist-1. NASA also encourages the public to share their interpretation of the data.
"We encourage our community to share their understanding of the raw data with the public by blogging or tweeting tutorials and analyses," a NASA official said.
NASA is expecting participation from the scientific community as well as the public since this is the first time a brand new solar system with potentially habitable planets was identified. With the new data, the public may help find new scientific discoveries associated with Trappist-1; one popular theory says most of the seven exoplanets may have liquid water on them.