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SETILive was an online project of Zooniverse that utilized live participants to analyze radio telescope data in real time to recognize patterns to find extraterrestrial intelligences (ETI's). The project ceased live operations on 12 October 2014, but still allows archival analysis.
== Project ==
The project was launched in February 2012 as part of Jill Tarter's 2009 TED Prize Wish. SETILive uses data provided by the Allen Telescope Array and presents it visually so that the public can collectively search for radio signals. The project focuses on radio frequencies that automated detection systems ignore due to the prevalence of man-made noise. Jill Tarter hopes that human analysts will be able to detect low signal-to-noise transmissions which confuse computers. The telescope scans the zone between a known star and a known planet where liquid water is possible. This is called the habitable zone. The website displays one to three different scans of an area of space. Its energy is measured and put into a waterfall display. Users must identify the areas of high energy—signals—by making two points through which a line is drawn. Users classify signals as: broken, continuous, or parallel. Users then must classify the signal as: erratic, wide, or narrow. Many of the signals are just satellites that give off energy.
== Decoys ==
The makers of SETILive intentionally put some false positives in. Sometimes, when a user clicks "done", a red line would identify the simulated ETI signal.
== See also ==
Drake equation
Radio astronomy
SETI
Zooniverse projects:
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website

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STEVE is an atmospheric optical phenomenon that appears as a purple and green light ribbon in the night sky, named in late 2016 by aurora watchers from Alberta, Canada. The backronym later adopted for the phenomenon is the Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement. According to analysis of satellite data from the European Space Agency's Swarm mission, the phenomenon is caused by a 25 km (16 mi) wide ribbon of hot plasma at an altitude of 450 km (280 mi), with a temperature of 3,000 °C (3,270 K; 5,430 °F) and flowing at a speed of 6 km/s (3.7 mi/s) (compared to 10 m/s (33 ft/s) outside the ribbon). The phenomenon is not rare, but had not been investigated and described scientifically prior to that time.
== Discovery and naming ==
The STEVE phenomenon has been observed by auroral photographers for decades. Some evidence suggests that STEVE observations may have been recorded as early as 1705. Notations resembling the phenomenon exist in some observations from 1911 to the 1950s by Carl Størmer.
The first accurate determination of the nature of the phenomenon was not made, however, until after members of a Facebook group, Alberta Aurora Chasers, named it, attributed it to a proton aurora, and began calling it a "proton arc". When physics professor Eric Donovan from the University of Calgary saw their photographs and suspected that their determination was incorrect because proton auroras are not visible, he correlated the time and location of the phenomenon with Swarm satellite data and one of the Alberta Aurora Chaser photographers, Song Despins. She provided GPS coordinates from Vimy, Alberta, that helped Donovan link the data to identify the phenomenon.
One of the aurora watchers, photographer Chris Ratzlaff, suggested using the name "Steve" for the phenomenon, in reference to Over the Hedge, an animated comedy movie from 2006. The characters in the movie give the name to a hedge that appears overnight, in order to make it seem more benign. Reports of the heretofore undescribed and unusual "aurora" went viral as an example of citizen science on Aurorasaurus.
During the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December 2016, Robert Lysak suggested using a backronym of "Steve" for the phenomenon that would stand for a "Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement". That acronym, "STEVE", has been adopted by the team at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center that is studying the phenomenon.
== Occurrence and cause ==
=== Location and timing ===
STEVE phenomena may be spotted further from the poles than the aurora, and as of March 2018, have been observed in the United Kingdom, Canada, Alaska, northern U.S. states, Australia, New Zealand and Denmark. The phenomenon appears as a very narrow arc extending for hundreds or thousands of kilometers, aligned east–west. It generally lasts for twenty minutes to an hour. As of March 2018, STEVE phenomena have only been spotted in the presence of an aurora. None were observed from October 2016 to February 2017, or from October 2017 to February 2018, leading NASA to believe that STEVE phenomena may only appear during certain seasons. However, STEVE phenomena have since been reported and photographed in South Australia during a geomagnetic storm event on 11 October 2024.
=== Research into cause ===
A study published in March 2018 by Elizabeth A. MacDonald and co-authors in the peer-reviewed journal, Science Advances, suggested that the STEVE phenomenon accompanies a subauroral ion drift (SAID), a fast-moving stream of extremely hot particles. STEVE marks the first observed visual effect accompanying a SAID.
In August 2018, researchers determined that the skyglow of the phenomenon was not associated with particle precipitation (electrons or ions) and, as a result, could be generated in the ionosphere.
One proposed mechanism for the glow is that excited nitrogen breaks apart and interacts with oxygen to form glowing nitric oxide.
=== Association with picket-fence aurora ===
Often, although not always, a STEVE phenomenon is observed above a green, "picket-fence" aurora according to a study published in Geophysical Research Letters. Although the picket-fence aurora is created through precipitation of electrons, they appear outside the auroral oval and so their formation is different from traditional aurora. The study also showed these phenomena appear in both hemispheres simultaneously. Sightings of picket-fence aurora have been made without observations of STEVE.
The green emissions in the picket fence aurora seem to be related to eddies in the supersonic flow of charged particles, similar to the eddies seen in a river that move more slowly than the water around them. Hence, the green bars in the picket fence are moving more slowly than the structures in the purple emissions and some scientists have speculated they could be caused by turbulence in the charged particles from space.
== Research ==
=== 2017 ===
"How I met Steve" - Eric Donovan's presentation to the 2017 ESA Earth Explorer Missions Science Meeting, March 20, 2017 (1:08:30 - 1:26:00)
"On the location of Steve, the mysterious subauroral feature"
=== 2018 ===
"New Science in Plain Sight: Citizen scientists lead to the discovery of optical structure in the upper atmosphere"
"On the Origin of STEVE: Particle Precipitation or Ionospheric Skyglow?"
"Historical observations of STEVE"
"What else can citizen science and 'amateur' observations reveal about STEVE?"
"From the spark to the fire, reflections on five years of public participation in aurora research"
"On the origin and geomagnetic conditions of STEVE's formation"
"A Statistical Analysis of STEVE"

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=== 2019 ===
"How Did We Miss This? An Upper Atmospheric Discovery Named STEVE"
"First Observations From the TREx Spectrograph: The Optical Spectrum of STEVE and the Picket Fence Phenomena"
"Color Ratios of Subauroral (STEVE) Arcs"
"A new dataset of STEVE phenomenon related observations spanning multiple solar cycles"
"Subauroral Green STEVE Arcs: Evidence for Low-Energy Excitation"
"Magnetospheric Signatures of STEVE: Implications for the Magnetospheric Energy Source and Interhemispheric Conjugacy"
"High-Latitude Ionospheric Electrodynamics Characterizing Energy and Momentum Deposition during STEVE Events Reported by Citizen Scientists"
"Steve: The Optical Signature of Intense Subauroral Ion Drifts"
"Optical Spectra and Emission Altitudes of Double-Layer STEVE: A Case Study"
"The Vertical Distribution of the Optical Emissions of a Steve and Picket Fence Event"
"Identifying STEVE's Magnetospheric Driver Using Conjugate Observations in the Magnetosphere and on the Ground"
"STEVE and the Picket Fence: Evidence of Feedback-Unstable Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Interaction"
"Possible Evidence of STEVE in Dynamics Explorer-2 Data"
=== 2020 ===
"Early Ground-Based Work by Auroral Pioneer Carl Størmer on the High-Altitude Detached Subauroral Arcs Now Known as "STEVE""
"Early Evidence of Isolated Auroral Structures in the 100 km Height Regime Observed at Subauroral Latitudes by the Aurora Pioneer Carl Størmer"
"Early Ground-Based Work by Auroral Pioneer Carl Størmer on the High-Altitude Detached Subauroral Arcs Now Known as "STEVE""
"Magnetospheric Conditions for STEVE and SAID: Particle Injection, Substorm Surge, and Field-Aligned Currents"
"Neutral Wind Dynamics Preceding the STEVE Occurrence and Their Possible Preconditioning Role in STEVE Formation"
"A Mechanism for the STEVE Continuum Emission"
"High-latitude Ionospheric Electrodynamics during STEVE Events"
"Dynamics of Auroral Precipitation Boundaries Associated With STEVE and SAID"
"The Apparent Motion of STEVE and the Picket Fence Phenomena"
"Characteristics of fragmented aurora-like emissions (FAEs) observed on Svalbard"
"Fragmented Aurora-like Emissions (FAEs) as a new type of aurora-like phenomenon"
=== 2021 ===
"Multi-Wavelength Imaging Observations of STEVE at Athabasca, Canada"
"Registration of synchronous geomagnetic pulsations and proton aurora during the substorm on March 1, 2017"
"First Simultaneous Observation of STEVE and SAR Arc Combining Data From Citizen Scientists, 630.0 nm All-Sky Images, and Satellites"
"Proton Aurora and Optical Emissions in the Subauroral Region"
"Robust techniques to improve high quality triangulations of contemporaneous citizen science observations of STEVE"
"Comparison of the SAR arc, STEVE and Picket fence dynamics registered at the Maimaga subauroral station on March 1, 2017"
"Improved Analysis of STEVE Photographs"
=== 2022 ===
"Rainbow of the Night: First Direct Observation of a SAR arc evolving into STEVE"
"Auroral structures: Revealing the importance of meso-scale M-I coupling"
=== 2023 ===
"It's Not Easy Being Green: Kinetic Modeling of the Emission Spectrum Observed in STEVE's Picket Fence"
"Unsolved problems in Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement (STEVE) and the picket fence"
=== 2024 ===
"Unexpected STEVE Observations at High Latitude During Quiet Geomagnetic Conditions"
== See also ==
Space weather
Thermosphere
Solar prominence
Upper-atmospheric lightning
Unusual types of aurorae
== References ==
== External links ==
Eric Donovan's presentation at 2017 ESA Earth Explorer Missions Science Meeting (1:08:30 - 1:26:00)
Alberta Aurora Chasers
NASA Goddard with Liz MacDonald (14 March 2018). "The Aurora Named Steve". YouTube.
STEVE over Copper Harbor May 5, 2021

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Sharkbook is a global database for identifying and tracking sharks, particularly whale sharks, using uploaded photos and videos.In addition to identifying and tracking sharks, the site allows people to "adopt a shark" and get updates on specific animals.
== Creation ==
Sharkbook is the result of collaboration between Simon J Pierce of the Marine Megafauna Foundation and Jason Holmberg of Wild Me. The software is Open Source and is now being used by other biology projects.
== Identification of individual sharks ==
Whale sharks have unique spot patterning on their sides, similar to a human fingerprint, which allows for individual identification. Scuba divers around the world can photograph sharks and upload their identification photographs to the Sharkbook website, supporting global research and conservation efforts. Additionally, the software automatically searches social media sites like YouTube and Instagram to look for images of whale sharks and adds them to the database.
Sharkbook software uses special pattern-matching software to identify the unique spots on each shark. This software and algorithms were originally adapted from NASA star tracking software used on the Hubble Space Telescope. This software uses a scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) algorithm, which can cope with complications presented by highly variable spot patterns and low contrast photographs.
== Purpose ==
This citizen science tool is free to use by researchers worldwide. Sharkbook represents a global initiative to centralize shark sightings and facilitate research on these vulnerable species.
== See also ==
Manta Matcher - For Manta Rays
Flukebook - For whales and dolphins
== References ==

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The Smithsonian Transcription Center is a crowdsourcing transcription project that aims to assist with the preservation and digitization of handwritten material in the Smithsonian Institution. The Transcription Center cites five reasons why transcription matters: discovery, humanities research, scientific research, education, and readability. Collections available for transcription include such documents as scientist field notebooks, artist diaries, astronomy logbooks, botany and bumblebee specimens and certified currency proofs.
The Smithsonian Transcription Center began in June 2013 and spent approximately a year in a beta test phase. On 12 August 2014 the Transcription Center website was launched to the public. As well as transcribing, volunteers review the submitted work before it is sent for approval. The final transcription is then checked by Smithsonian staff and once accepted, both the original images of the work and the transcription are kept on line.
The Transcriptions Center has an open call for anyone wanting to join in on transcribing documents for their many projects. Researches, educators, history buffs, amateur social scientists, and citizens are welcome to volunteer to transcribe for any of the many projects. The Transcription Center hopes that it will engage the public by making the Smithsonian Institution collections accessible.
== References ==
== External links ==
Presentation by Dr. Meghan Ferriter, Smithsonian Transcription Center Project Manager on Experiences from the Smithsonian Transcription Center
Smithsonian Collections Blog posts on the Transcription Center
Transcription Center blog posts on Smithsonian Libraries' Unbound blog

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The Society for Amateur Scientists (SAS) was a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to "helping ordinary people do extraordinary science". It was the first organization ever created for the generalists of citizen science. Rather than supporting a narrow interest, such as amateur astronomy or archeology, SAS supported amateur research into all fields of science and in so doing, it helped to launch the modern citizen science movement.
== History ==
The Society for Amateur Scientists was the brainchild of Shawn Carlson, Ph.D., a physicist from the University of California, Berkeley's Center for Particle Astrophysics. Inspired by the example of his grandfather, a gifted amateur scientist named George Donald Graham, Carlson founded SAS in San Diego, California on January 1, 1994. Members of the founding Board of Trustees included Nobel Prize winner Glenn Seaborg and Guggenheim Fellowship winner Paul MacCready. Dr. Carlson led the organization for 16 years until he closed it to pursue other interests in science education.
In 1995, Scientific American magazine tapped Carlson, due to his leadership in the citizen scientist community, to write their long running column The Amateur Scientist. During the six years that Carlson wrote this column, SAS grew to a reported 2,000 members. In 1999, the MacArthur Foundation recognized Carlson for his visionary leadership in creating SAS with a MacArthur Fellowship in science education.
SAS provided a number of services to citizen scientists. The organization published an ezine called The Citizen Scientist (TCS) which delivered how-to science content as well as reports of citizen scientist research. In July 2008 the Chicago Tribune named "The Citizen Scientist" one of their five favorite science magazines. SAS hosted annual conferences in various cities around the United States. It ran a community website to promote networking between citizen scientists around the world. It had a number of local chapters and affiliate organizations. SAS also provided educational services to young researchers. The organization raised over one million dollars in support of citizen science.
In December, 2008 Discover Magazine named three SAS members–Forrest Mims, Ely Silk and Bill Hilton–to be amongst the "50 Best Brains In Science".
In June 2010 Dr. Carlson closed the organization to shift his professional focus entirely to youth education when he founded the LabRats Science Education Program. The web domain for SAS, sas.org, was sold. A new domain, soamsci.org, was created to hold the final SAS web site and the complete archive of TCS articles. As of December 2020, Dr. Carlson continues to support the amateur scientist community through the Society for Amateur Scientists Facebook page.
== References ==

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Stardust@home is a citizen science project that encourages volunteers to search images for tiny interstellar dust impacts. The project began providing data for analysis on August 1, 2006.
From February to May 2000 and from August to December 2002, the Stardust spacecraft exposed its "Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector" (SIDC), a set of aerogel blocks about 0.1 m2 (1 ft2) in total size, to interstellar dust. The collector media consist of 130 blocks of 1 and 3 cm thick silica-based aerogel mounted in aluminum cells.
In order to spot impacts of interstellar dust, just over 700,000 individual fields of the aerogel will have to be visually inspected using large magnification. Each field, which is composed of 40 images, will thus be termed a "focus movie". Stardust@home will try to achieve this by distributing the work among volunteers. Unlike distributed computing projects, it does not try to harness the processing power of many computers. It uses them only to distribute and present the tasks to humans. This approach is similar to the earlier Clickworkers project to find Martian craters.
Participants must pass a test to qualify to register to participate. After registering and passing the test, participants have access to the web-based "virtual microscope" which allows them to search each field for interstellar dust impacts by focusing up and down with a focus control.
As an incentive for volunteers, the first five phases of Stardust@home allowed the first individual to discover a particular interstellar dust particle to name it. Also, the discoverer could appear as a co-author on any scientific paper announcing the discovery of the particle. As of 2023, numerous peer-reviewed papers summarizing the results of the Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination (ISPE) that include these volunteers as co-authors have been published in Meteoritics & Planetary Science.
== Phases ==
Stardust@home has been divided into six phases. Phase I became publicly available on August 1, 2006, Phase II in August 2007, Phase III in March 2010, Phase IV in July 2011, Phase V in May 2012, and Phase VI in June 2013.
Phase VI includes over 30,000 new "movies" representing eight aerogel tiles. The scoring method was also upgraded and, unlike the other phases, Stardust@home can no longer guarantee first finders of particles will be listed as co-authors on any scientific papers written about the discoveries.
== See also ==
Clickworkers
Crowdsourcing
Zooniverse
Galaxy Zoo
The Daily Minor Planet
SETI@home
== References ==
== External links ==
stardust@home
NASA Stardust Mission Homepage

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Tabby's Star (designated as KIC 8462852 in the Kepler Input Catalog, and also known by the names Boyajian's Star and WTF(Where'sTheFlux?) Star) is a binary star in the constellation Cygnus approximately 1,470 light-years (450 parsecs) from Earth. The system is composed of an F-type main-sequence star and a red dwarf companion.
Unusual light fluctuations of Tabby's Star, including up to a 22% dimming in brightness, were discovered by citizen scientists as part of the Planet Hunters project. The discovery was made from data collected by the Kepler space telescope, which observed changes in the brightness of distant stars to detect exoplanets. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the star's large irregular changes in brightness, but as of 2024, none of them fully explain all aspects of the resulting light curve. It has been suggested that it is an extraterrestrial megastructure, but evidence tends to discount this suggestion.
In September 2019, astronomers reported that the observed dimmings of Tabby's Star may have been produced by fragments resulting from the disruption of an orphaned exomoon. Tabby's Star is not the only star that has large irregular dimmings; other such stars include young stellar objects called YSO dippers, which have different dimming patterns.
== Nomenclature ==
No proper name for this star has been approved by the International Astronomical Union. The informal names "Tabby's Star" and "Boyajian's Star" refer to American astronomer Tabetha S. Boyajian, who was the lead author of the scientific paper that announced the discovery of the star's irregular light fluctuations in 2015. The nickname "WTF Star" is a reference to the paper's subtitle "where's the flux?", which highlights the observed dips in the star's radiative flux. The star has also been given the nickname "LGM-2" – a homage to the first pulsar discovered, PSR B1919+21, which was given the nickname "LGM-1" when it was originally hypothesized to be a transmission from an extraterrestrial civilization.
Valid stellar designations have been given in various star catalogues. In the Kepler Input Catalog, a collection of astronomical objects catalogued by the Kepler space telescope, Tabby's Star is known as KIC 8462852. In the Tycho-2 Catalogue, an enhanced collection of stars catalogued by Hipparcos, the star is known as TYC 3162-665-1. In the infrared Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS), the star is identified as 2MASS J20061546+4427248.
== Location ==
Tabby's Star in the constellation Cygnus is roughly halfway between the bright stars Deneb and Delta Cygni as part of the Northern Cross. It is situated south of 31 Cygni, and northeast of the star cluster NGC 6866. While only a few arcminutes away from the cluster, it is unrelated and closer to the Sun than it is to the star cluster.
With an apparent magnitude of 11.7, the star cannot be seen by the naked eye, but is visible with a 5-inch (130 mm) telescope in a dark sky with little light pollution.
== History of observations ==
Tabby's Star was observed as early as the year 1890. The star was cataloged in the Tycho, 2MASS, UCAC4, and WISE astronomical catalogs (published in 1997, 2003, 2009, and 2012, respectively).
The main source of information about the luminosity fluctuations of Tabby's Star is the Kepler space telescope. During its primary and extended mission from 2009 to 2013 it continuously monitored the light curves of over 100,000 stars in a patch of sky in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra.
=== 2017 light fluctuations ===

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On 20 May 2017, Boyajian and her colleagues reported, via The Astronomer's Telegram, on an ongoing dimming event (named "Elsie") which possibly began on 14 May 2017. It was detected by the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, specifically by its telescope in Maui (LCO Maui). This was verified by the Fairborn Observatory (part of the N2K Consortium) in Southern Arizona (and later by LCO Canary Islands). Further optical and infrared spectroscopy and photometry were urgently requested, given the short duration of these events, which may be measured in days or weeks. Observations from multiple observers globally were coordinated, including polarimetry. Furthermore, the independent SETI projects Breakthrough Listen and Near-InfraRed Optical SETI (NIROSETI), both at Lick Observatory, continue to monitor the star. By the end of the three-day dimming event, a dozen observatories had taken spectra, with some astronomers having dropped their own projects to provide telescope time and resources. More generally the astronomical community was described as having gone "mildly bananas" over the opportunity to collect data in real-time on the unique star. The 2% dip event was named "Elsie" (a homophone of "LC", in reference to Las Cumbres and light curve).
Initial spectra with FRODOSpec at the two-meter Liverpool Telescope showed no changes visible between a reference spectrum and this dip. Several observatories, however, including the twin Keck telescopes (HIRES) and numerous citizen science observatories, acquired spectra of the star, showing a dimming that had a complex shape, and initially had a pattern similar to the one at 759.75 days from the Kepler event 2, epoch 2 data. Observations were taken across the electromagnetic spectrum.
Evidence of a second dimming event (named "Celeste") was observed on 13–14 June 2017, which possibly began 11 June, by amateur astronomer Bruce L. Gary. While the light curve on 14–15 June indicated a possible recovery from the dimming event, the dimming continued to increase afterwards, and on 16 June, Boyajian wrote that the event was approaching a 2% dip in brightness.
A third prominent 1% dimming event (named "Skara Brae") was detected beginning 2 August 2017, and which recovered by 17 August.
A fourth prominent dimming event (named "Angkor") began 5 September 2017, and is, as of 16 September 2017, between 2.3% and 3% dimming event, making it the "deepest dip this year".
Another dimming event, amounting to a 0.3% dip, began around 21 September 2017, and completely recovered by 4 October 2017.
On 10 October 2017, an increasing brightening, lasting about two weeks, of the starlight from KIC 8462852 (Tabby's Star) was noted by Bruce L. Gary of the Hereford Arizona Observatory and Boyajian. A possible explanation, involving a transiting brown dwarf in a 1,600-day eccentric orbit near KIC 8462852, a "drop feature" in dimness and predicted intervals of brightening, to account for the unusual fluctuating starlight events of KIC 8462852, has been proposed.
On about 20 November 2017, a fifth prominent dimming event began and had deepened to a depth of 0.44%; as of 16 December 2017, the event recovered, leveled off at dip bottom for 11 days, faded again, to a current total dimming depth of 1.25%, and was recovering again.
Dimming and brightening events of the star continue to be monitored; related light curves are updated and released frequently.
=== 2018 light fluctuations ===
The star was too close to the Sun's position in the sky from late December 2017 to mid February 2018 to be seen. Observations resumed in late February. A new series of dips began on 16 March 2018. By 18 March 2018, the star was down in brightness by more than 1% in g-band, according to Bruce L. Gary, and about 5% in r-band, making it the deepest dip observed since the Kepler Mission in 2013, according to Tabetha S. Boyajian. A second even deeper dip with a depth of >5% started on 24 March 2018, as confirmed by AAVSO observer John Hall. As of 27 March 2018, that second dip was recovering.
=== 2019 light fluctuations ===
The 2019 observing season began in mid-March, when the star reappeared after its yearly conjunction with the Sun.
The ground based observation campaign was supplemented by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which observed the star every 2 minutes between 18 July – 11 September 2019. It observed a 1.4% dip in brightness between 3–4 September 2019.
Between October 2019 and December 2019, at least seven separate dips were observed, the deepest of which had a depth of 2%. By the end of the observing season in early January 2020, the star had once again recovered in brightness. The total combined depth of the dips in 2019 was 11%, comparable to that seen in 2011 and 2013, but spread over a long time interval. This cluster of dips is roughly centered on the 17 October 2019 date predicted by Sacco et al. for a reappearance, given a 1,574-day (4.31-year) period, of orbiting material comprising the original "D800" dip.

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== Luminosity ==
Observations of the luminosity of the star by the Kepler space telescope show small, frequent, non-periodic dips in brightness, along with two large recorded dips in brightness two years apart. The amplitude of the changes in the star's brightness, and the aperiodicity of the changes, mean that this star is of particular interest for astronomers. The star's changes in brightness are consistent with many small masses orbiting the star in "tight formation".
The first major dip, on 5 March 2011, reduced the star's brightness by up to 15%, and the next 726 days later (on 28 February 2013) by up to 22%. (A third dimming, around 8%, occurred 48 days later.) In comparison, a planet the size of Jupiter would only obscure a star of this size by 1%, indicating that whatever is blocking light during the star's major dips is not a planet, but rather something covering up to half the width of the star. Due to the failure of two of Kepler's reaction wheels, the star's predicted 750-day dip around February 2015 was not recorded. The light dips do not exhibit an obvious pattern.
In addition to the day-long dimmings, a study of a century's worth of photographic plates suggests that the star has gradually faded in 100 years (from c. 1890 to c. 1990) by about 20%, which would be unprecedented for any F-type main-sequence star. Teasing accurate magnitudes from long-term photographic archives is a complex procedure, however, requiring adjustment for equipment changes, and is strongly dependent on the choice of comparison stars. Another study, examining the same photographic plates, concluded that the possible century-long dimming was likely a data artifact, and not a real astrophysical event. Another study from plates between 1895 and 1995 found strong evidence that the star has not dimmed, but kept a constant flux within a few percent, except an 8% dip on 24 October 1978, resulting in a period of the putative occulter of 738 days.
A third study, using light measurements by the Kepler observatory over a four-year period, determined that Tabby's Star dimmed at about 0.34% per year before dimming more rapidly by about 2.5% in 200 days. It then returned to its previous slow fade rate. The same technique was used to study 193 stars in its vicinity and 355 stars similar in size and composition to Tabby's Star. None of these stars exhibited such dimming.
In 2018, a possible 1,574-day (4.31-year) periodicity in dimming of the star was reported.
== Stellar companion ==
A red dwarf stellar companion at projected separation 880±10 AU from Tabby's Star was confirmed to be comoving in 2021. For comparison, this is around 180 times the orbit of Jupiter, around 30 times the orbit of Neptune, or around 5.3 times the distance to Voyager 1 as of January 2025.
== Hypotheses ==
Originally, and until Kohler's work of 2017, it was thought that, based on the spectrum and stellar type of Tabby's Star, its changes in brightness could not be attributed to intrinsic variability. Consequently, a few hypotheses have been proposed involving material orbiting the star and blocking its light, although none of these fully fit the observed data.
Some of the proposed explanations involve interstellar dust, a series of giant planets with very large ring structures, a recently captured asteroid field, the system undergoing Late Heavy Bombardment, and an artificial megastructure orbiting the star.
By 2018, the leading hypothesis was that the "missing" heat flux involved in the star's dimming could be stored within the star's interior. Such variations in luminosity might arise from a number of mechanisms affecting the efficiency of heat transport inside the star.
However, in September 2019, astronomers reported that the observed dimmings of Tabby's Star may have been produced by fragments resulting from the disruption of an orphaned exomoon.
=== Circumstellar dust ring ===
Meng et al. (2017) suggested that, based on observational data of Tabby's Star from the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Belgian AstroLAB IRIS Observatory, only "microscopic fine-dust screens", originating from "circumstellar material", are able to disperse the starlight in the way detected in their measurements. Based on these studies, on 4 October 2017, NASA reported that the unusual dimming events of Tabby's Star are due to an "uneven ring of dust" orbiting the star. Although the explanation of a significant amount of small particles orbiting the star regards "long-term fading" as noted by Meng, the explanation also seems consistent with the week-long fadings found by amateur astronomer Bruce L. Gary and the Tabby Team, coordinated by astronomer Tabetha S. Boyajian, in more recent dimming events. A related, but more sophisticated, explanation of dimming events, involving a transiting "brown dwarf" in a 1600-day eccentric orbit near Tabby's Star, a "drop feature" in dimness, and predicted intervals of "brightening", has been proposed. Dimming and brightening events of Tabby's Star continue to be monitored; related light curves are updated and released frequently.
Nonetheless, data similar to that observed for Tabby's Star, along with supporting data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, were found with dust debris orbiting WD 1145+017, a white dwarf that also has unusual light curve fluctuations. Further, the highly variable star RZ Piscium, which brightens and dims erratically, has been found to emit excessive infrared radiation, suggesting that the star is surrounded by large amounts of gas and dust, possibly resulting from the destruction of local planets.
=== A cloud of disintegrating comets ===

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One proposed explanation for the reduction in light is that it is due to a cloud of disintegrating comets orbiting the star elliptically. This scenario would assume that a planetary system around Tabby's Star has something similar to the Oort cloud and that gravity from a nearby star caused comets from said cloud to fall closer into the system, thereby obstructing the spectra of Tabby's Star. Evidence supporting this hypothesis includes an M-type red dwarf within 132 billion kilometers (885 AU) of Tabby's Star. The notion that disturbed comets from such a cloud could exist in high enough numbers to obscure 22% of the star's observed luminosity has been doubted.
The smooth shallow ingress and sharp egress of some dimming events, as well as some symmetric triple dips, are difficult to explain with the comet scenario. Instead, a few asteroid-like bodies embedded in a dust cloud may better explain the star's light curve.
Submillimetre-wavelength observations searching for farther-out cold dust in an asteroid belt akin to the Sun's Kuiper Belt suggest that a distant "catastrophic" planetary disruption explanation is unlikely; the possibility of a disrupted asteroid belt scattering comets into the inner system is still to be determined.
=== Younger star with coalescing material around it ===
Astronomer Jason T. Wright and others who have studied Tabby's Star have suggested that if the star is younger than its position and speed would suggest, then it may still have coalescing material around it.
A 0.8–4.2-micrometer spectroscopic study of the system using the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (NASA IRTF) found no evidence for coalescing material within a few astronomical units of the mature central star.
=== Planetary debris field ===
High-resolution spectroscopy and imaging observations have also been made, as well as spectral energy distribution analyses using the Nordic Optical Telescope in Spain. A massive collision scenario would create warm dust that glows in infrared wavelengths, but there is no observed excess infrared energy, ruling out massive planetary collision debris. Other researchers think the planetary debris field explanation is unlikely, given the very low probability that Kepler would ever witness such an event due to the rarity of collisions of such size.
As with the possibility of coalescing material around the star, spectroscopic studies using the NASA IRTF found no evidence for hot close-in dust or circumstellar matter from an evaporating or exploding planet within a few astronomical units of the central star. Similarly, a study of past infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer found no evidence for an excess of infrared emission from the star, which would have been an indicator of warm dust grains that could have come from catastrophic collisions of meteors or planets in the system. This absence of emission supports the hypothesis that a swarm of cold comets on an unusually eccentric orbit could be responsible for the star's unique light curve, but more studies are needed.
=== Consumption of a planet ===
In December 2016, a team of researchers proposed that Tabby's Star swallowed a planet, causing a temporary and unobserved increase in brightness due to the release of gravitational energy. As the planet fell into its star, it could have been ripped apart or had its moons stripped away, leaving clouds of debris orbiting the star in eccentric orbits. Planetary debris still in orbit around the star would then explain its observed drops in intensity. Additionally, the researchers suggest that the consumed planet could have caused the star to increase in brightness up to 10,000 years ago, and its stellar flux is now returning to the normal state.
=== Large planet with oscillating rings ===
Sucerquia et al. (2017) suggested that a large planet with oscillating rings may help explain the unusual dimmings associated with Tabby's Star.
=== Large ringed planet followed by Trojan swarms ===
Ballesteros et al. (2017) proposed a large, ringed planet trailed by a swarm of Trojan asteroids in its L5 Lagrangian point, and estimated an orbit that predicts another event in early 2021 due to the leading Trojans followed by another transit of the hypothetical planet in 2023. The model suggests a planet with a radius of 4.7 Jupiter radii, large for a planet (unless very young). An early red dwarf of about 0.5 R☉ would be easily seen in infrared. The current radial velocity observations available (four runs at σv ≈ 400 m/s) hardly constrain the model, but new radial velocity measurements would greatly reduce the uncertainty. The model predicts a discrete and short-lived event for the May 2017 dimming episode, corresponding to the secondary eclipse of the planet passing behind KIC 8246852, with about a 3% decrease in the stellar flux with a transit time of about 2 days. If this is the cause of the May 2017 event, the planet's orbital period is more precisely estimated as 12.41 years with a semi-major axis of 5.9 AU.

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=== Intrinsic luminosity variations ===
The reddening observed during the deep dimming events of Tabby's Star is consistent with cooling of its photosphere. It does not require obscuration by dust. Such cooling could be produced by a decreased efficiency of heat transport caused e.g. by decreased effectiveness of convection due to the star's strong differential rotation, or by changes in its modes of heat transport if it is near the transition between radiative and convective heat transport. The "missing" heat flux is stored as a small increase of internal and potential energy.
The possible location of this early F star near the boundary between radiative and convective transport seems to be supported by the finding that the star's observed brightness variations appear to fit the "avalanche statistics" known to occur in a system close to a phase-transition. "Avalanche statistics" with a self-similar or power-law spectrum are a universal property of complex dynamical systems operating close to a phase transition or bifurcation point between two different types of dynamical behavior. Such close-to-critical systems are often observed to exhibit behavior that is intermediate between "order" and "chaos". Three other stars in the Kepler Input Catalog likewise exhibit similar "avalanche statistics" in their brightness variations, and all three are known to be magnetically active. It has been conjectured that stellar magnetism may be involved in Tabby's Star.
=== An artificial megastructure ===
Some astronomers have speculated that the objects eclipsing Tabby's Star could be parts of a megastructure made by an alien civilization, such as a Dyson swarm, a hypothetical structure that an advanced civilization might build around a star to intercept some of its light for their energy needs. According to Steinn Sigurðsson, the megastructure hypothesis is implausible and disfavored by Occam's razor and fails to sufficiently explain the dimming. He says that it remains a valid subject for scientific investigation, however, because it is a falsifiable hypothesis. Due to extensive media coverage on this matter, Tabby's Star has been compared by Kepler's Steve Howell to KIC 4150611, a star with an odd light curve that was shown, after years of research, to be a part of a five-star system. The likelihood of extraterrestrial intelligence being the cause of the dimming is purely speculative; however, the star remains an outstanding SETI target because natural explanations have yet to fully explain the dimming phenomenon. The latest results have ruled out explanations involving only opaque objects such as stars, planets, swarms of asteroids, or alien megastructures.
=== Exomoons ===
Two papers published in summer 2019 offered plausible scientific scenarios involving large moons being stripped from their planets. Numeric simulations were performed of the migration of gas giant planets, and their large gaseous moons, during the first few hundred million years after the formation of the planetary system. In approximately 50% of the cases, the results produce a scenario where the moon is freed from its parent planet and its orbit evolves to produce a light curve similar to that of Tabby's Star.
== Follow-up studies ==
As of 2015, numerous optical telescopes were monitoring Tabby's Star in anticipation of another multi-day dimming event, with planned follow-up observations of a dimming event using large telescopes equipped with spectrographs to determine if the eclipsing mass is a solid object, or composed of dust or gas. Additional follow-up observations may involve the ground-based Green Bank Telescope, the Very Large Array Radio Telescope, and future orbital telescopes dedicated to exoplanetology such as the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, TESS, and PLATO.
In 2016, a Kickstarter fund-raising campaign was led by Tabetha Boyajian, the lead author of the initial study on the star's anomalous light curve. The project proposed to use the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network for continuous monitoring of the star. The campaign raised over US$100,000, enough for one year of telescope time. Furthermore, as of 2016, more than fifty amateur astronomers working under the aegis of the American Association of Variable Star Observers were providing effectively full coverage since AAVSO's alert about the star in October 2015, namely a nearly continuous photometric record. In a study published in January 2018, Boyajian et al. reported that whatever is blocking Tabby's Star filters different wavelengths of light differently, so it cannot be an opaque object. They concluded that it is most likely space dust.
In December 2018, a search for laser light emissions from Tabby's Star was carried out using the Automated Planet Finder (APF), which is sensitive enough to detect a 24 MW laser at this distance. Although a number of candidates were identified, further analysis showed that they are coming from the Earth and not from the star.
=== SETI results ===
In October 2015, the SETI Institute used the Allen Telescope Array to look for radio emissions from possible intelligent extraterrestrial life in the vicinity of the star. After an initial two-week survey, the SETI Institute reported that it found no evidence of technology-related radio signals from the star system. No narrowband radio signals were found at a level of 180–300 Jy in a 1 Hz channel, or medium-band signals above 10 Jy in a 100 kHz channel.
In 2016, the VERITAS gamma-ray observatory was used to search for ultra-fast optical transients from astronomical objects, with astronomers developing an efficient method sensitive to nanosecond pulses with fluxes as low as about one photon per square meter. This technique was applied on archival observations of Tabby's Star from 2009 to 2015, but no emissions were detected.
In May 2017, a related search, based on laser light emissions, was reported, with no evidence found for technology-related signals from Tabby's Star.
In September 2017, some SETI@Home workunits were created based on a previous RF survey of the region around this star. This was coupled with a doubling in the size of SETI@Home workunits, so the workunits related to this region will probably be the first workunits to have less issues with quantization noise.
=== EPIC 204278916 ===
A star called EPIC 204278916, as well as some other young stellar objects, have been observed to exhibit dips with some similarities to those observed in Tabby's Star. They differ in several respects, however. EPIC 204278916 shows much deeper dips than Tabby's Star, and they are grouped over a shorter period, whereas the dips at Tabby's Star are spread out over several years. Furthermore, EPIC 204278916 is surrounded by a proto-stellar disc, whereas Tabby's Star appears to be a normal F-type star displaying no evidence of a disc.
=== Other stars ===
An overall study of 21 other similar stars was presented in 2019.
== Light curve gallery ==
== See also ==
Disrupted planet
Tidally detached exomoon
List of stars that have unusual dimming periods
Stars named after people
== References ==
== External links ==
Where's The Flux, home page of the Tabby's Star observation project
Tabby's Star on WikiSky: DSS2, SDSS, GALEX, IRAS, Hydrogen α, X-Ray, Astrophoto, Sky Map, Articles and images

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Tela Botanica is a collaborative network of francophone botanists (about 47 000 enrolled in 110 countries at the beginning of 2020).
It served as a model for the network of entomologists Tela Insecta, which is developing in partnership with Tela Botanica.
== Context ==
The Tela Botanica network was created with the aim of supporting the renewal of botany in the French-speaking world, in the context of the protection of the planet's resources and the need for their sustainable exploitation.
== History ==
The Tela Botanica network was created in December 1999 and is managed by a French association: Association Tela Botanica. Its founding members include three legal entities (the Société botanique de France, the botanical review La Garance voyageuse and the association ACEMAV) and the initiator of the project is Daniel Mathieu.
The headquarters of the association is located at the Institute of Botany of Montpellier (Montpellier 2 University). In four years, the network doubled its number of registrants, whereas it took seven years to reach the ten thousandth registrant. The 20,000th member joined the association on April 22, 2013. By 2014, the network has approximately 24,000 registered members and approximately 13,000 pages of the site are accessed daily.
== Aims ==
Its main objectives are:
to create links between francophone botanists;
to set up collective projects;
to collect data to make available to botanists;
to bring together the initiatives that contribute to the development of botany, including "digital botany".
== Operation ==
The Tela Botanica network is aimed at all persons, whether natural or legal, interested in the knowledge and protection of the plant world, in an ethic of respect for nature, man and his environment.
Its operation is based on two essential choices:
the logic and ethics of the collaborative networks for the mode of participation of the members (cf the work of Jean-Michel Cornu);
the massive use of ICT (information and communication technologies) as a means of exchanging among members through its internet portal of French-speaking botany.
All software and applications developed under the network are licensed under CeCILL. The data and documents are mainly distributed under a free Creative Commons license. A close collaboration is established with the French-speaking botanical portal of Wikipedia.
Registration for the Tela Botanica network is free of charge. It gives the possibility to use the logistical and technical means of the Network to set up and develop projects, to participate in the different groups animated within the network and to receive by e-mail the weekly newsletter of botanical news. Registration is done online from the Internet and a global mapping system can view the location of the 15,000 registered (as of June 8, 2011) of the network in more than 60 countries.
The network is run by a nonprofit organization. As of 2020, the organization had 10 employees and a budget of €695,855, 68% of which came from government grants. An important but unquantified part comes from the volunteering of the members, who have opportunities for expression, collaborative work and proposal in the forums and other advisory tools and databases and photos put in place by the network (eFlore, Online Notebook, newsletter ...). They can be consulted by the steering committee to obtain an opinion on important choices. They are a key element in the dynamics and life of the network.
== References ==
=== Bibliography ===
Lorna Heaton (Université de Montréal), La réactualisation de la contribution des amateurs à la botanique; Le collectif en ligne Tela Botanica, revue Terrains & travaux (ENS Cachan), 2011/1 (n° 18) 240 pages Lien.
=== External links ===
Official website
Works of Jean-Michel Cornu Jean-Michel Cornu

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Tracking the Wild is a social media platform built specifically for wildlife. The platform has a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, it is a social media tool to share wildlife sightings and provide a host of reserve specific information. On the other hand, the platform embraces crowdsourcing and citizen science to generate valuable wildlife sightings data for conservation research.
== History ==
Development of Tracking the Wild started in Cape Town in early 2012 by husband and wife team John White and Natalie White. The company officially launched in February 2014 with their website and Android app followed by the launch of their iPhone app in September 2014.
In April 2017 John & Natalie starting working on a new platform, Birda, a social network designed specifically for the global birding community.
== Participation ==
The Tracking the Wild platform is based on the crowdsourcing of valuable wildlife sightings by citizen science. Tracking the Wild users submit their wildlife sightings in the form of images and/or video together with a sighting's date and time, GPS location and species name. This open data is then incorporated into an online database and shared with wildlife researchers at the University of Cape Town's Animal Demography Unit and other accredited conservation organisations.
== Protection of endangered species ==
The platform has been built to exclude rhino sightings and restrict the location information for any species whose safety could be jeopardised by its location being made public. This can be managed on a park-by-park and individual species basis.
== Protected areas covered ==
The Tracking the Wild platform currently covers over 40 national parks, nature reserves and game reserves across South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
Birda
Tracking the Wild's Android App
Tracking the Wild's iPhone App

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uBiome, Inc. was an American biotechnology company based in San Francisco that developed technology to sequence the human microbiome. Founded in 2012, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2019 following an FBI raid in an investigation over possible insurance fraud involving the US health insurance program Medicare.
In 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged two of the cofounders (Jessica Richman and Zachary Apte) with defrauding investors. The couple were also charged with federal crimes including conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering. Since 2021, the FBI has considered the founders to be fugitives.
== History ==
=== Founding ===
The company was founded by Jessica Richman, Zachary Apte, and Will Ludington who were scientists in the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences. In November 2012, uBiome generated $350,000 through a crowdfunding campaign. The founders received mentoring and funding from Y Combinator and further funding from Andreessen Horowitz and 8VC.
Jessica Richman was also found to have lied about her age to get on tech lists such as Forbes 30 under 30. She was in her forties at the time.
=== Insurance fraud investigation and liquidation ===
In April 2019, FBI agents raided the uBiome office in an investigation over possible insurance fraud involving the US health insurance program Medicare. According to company insiders, the company often repeatedly billed patients without their consent and pressured doctors to approve tests.
Cofounders Apte and Richman were put on administrative leave pending an investigation by the company's board.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (reorganization of debt) in September 2019, amidst the investigation, and less than a month later it filed for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy (liquidation) and shut down.
In 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged two of the cofounders (Richman and Apte) with defrauding investors. The couple were also charged with federal crimes including conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering. Richman and Apte married in 2019 and relocated to Germany in June 2020. Since 2021, the FBI has considered them to be fugitives.
=== Products and services ===
Customers purchased kits to sample one or more parts of their body, including the gut, genitals, mouth, nose, or skin. After swabbing, a participant took a survey which was used to make correlations with microbiome data. The participant sent the kit to the company in the mail and received data in a few weeks; they could compare their data with that of uBiome's data set. In 2015 uBiome received Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) certification from the State of California. In 2016, uBiome received accreditation from the College of American Pathologists.
=== Technology ===
As of 2015, the company first amplified a portion of the bacterial gene that encodes 16S ribosomal RNA using PCR, then sequenced the amplified 16S ribosomal RNA gene, in order to categorize the bacteria at the genus level. The company had proprietary machine learning algorithms that analyzed the sequence data and compared it with the company's proprietary database of microbiomes, built from the samples that partners and single customers sent to them, and web-based software that allowed individuals to view their microbiome and make certain comparisons. A 2014 report in Xconomy said the company outsourced the sequencing. The sequencing was done on the Illumina NextSeq500 sequencer.
In October 2015, the company introduced an app on iOS using ResearchKit that allowed customers to view their results on mobile devices.
uBiome has been compared with Theranos and 23andMe, each of which also failed as a controversial biotechnology company influenced by Silicon Valley.
=== Citizen science ===
Amy Dockser Marcus noted in a 2014 essay in The Wall Street Journal that when uBiome raised its initial round of crowdfunding in early 2013, many questions were raised by bioethicists about the company's citizen science business model – namely whether it had actually obtained informed consent from its customers, and whether direct to consumer genetic testing initiatives could be ethically conducted at all, and its lack of institutional review board (IRB) approval. The Wall Street Journal essay also noted that questions were raised about the quality of data obtained in citizen-science initiatives, with regard to self-selection and other issues.
The company obtained an institutional review board approval in July 2013.
In 2014, people experienced in biotechnology entrepreneurship also raised questions about the ethics of crowdfunding a biotech company, as the risks of such ventures are high even for people with scientific and business sophistication.
As of 2015, uBiome offered a $1 million grant program to researchers and citizen scientists for microbiome sampling and related analysis. One winner of the first round of such grants was the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
== Awards and recognition ==
In March 2018, uBiome made Fast Company's list for The World's Most Innovative Companies in Data Science, acknowledging uBiome's work collecting data to develop tests for HPV and STIs.
== See also ==
Personal genomics
Genealogical DNA test
Citizen science
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived April 16, 2019)