Eight weeks / sixteen sessions / one research loop

A guided online observatory, without the software maze.

Students predict, inspect, measure, test, and defend. ExoInquiry handles code, file paths, calculations, and instrument guardrails behind the scenes.

8weeks
16sessions
45minutes
0installs

Choose a desk

Student mission path

Week 1 / SIGNAL

How an unseen planet leaves evidence

How can light reveal a world we cannot photograph?

WEEK OUTCOMEPredict and recognize the broad shape of a planetary transit.
TRANSIT MODELTRAINING NIGHTNO WRITING

Find the transit fingerprint

A planet does not make a star disappear. It makes a shallow, time-bounded dip that recovers.

Your mission
Predict three possible light-curve shapes, watch a modeled transit, and lock the pattern that the data should contain.
Evidence saved
A prediction card that is automatically compared with the revealed signal.

Opening prediction / public preview

Which observation most clearly rules out a permanent dimming?

Honest data boundary

Four data paths....plus a live planning path.

AVAILABLE · DEFAULT

MAST / TESS

Real public Sector 20 photometry, frozen and source-hashed so the class does not depend on a live archive request.

PILOT TESTING

LCO 187990518

The complete ground event and wider Phase III field. End-to-end TransitSift numerical QA remains open.

PILOT TESTING

LCO 179120561

The OGG 2 m rotator night retained for real similarity tracking, not as the complete-transit substitute.

ALWAYS AVAILABLE

Course fallback

Labeled deterministic data takes over after a source or capability failure, without changing the recorded request.

PLANNING READY

Live observatory

Students can assemble a request. Nothing is presented as sent until an observatory connection confirms it.