Amateur astronomer discovers four new planets from his office at home (and he doesn't even own a te

An amateur astronomer is over the moon after discovering four new planets in his spare time at home.
Peter Jalowiczor, 45, has never owned a telescope but still managed to provide scientists with enough information to establish the existence of four gaseous orbs outside the solar system.
The gas worker from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, has been officially named by the University of California's Lick-Carnegie Planet Search Team as the co-discoverer of planets HD31253b, HD218566b, HD177830c and HD99492c.


Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

Wow! Imagine what this guy must be feeling like now. The thing is though, if thats the case and these were discovered then where are the likes of NASA looking?

that is amazing... shows what a big universe it is and how much of it we know little about... that guy deserves some real credit for his discovery..
good find op

reply to post by jazz10

Wow! Imagine what this guy must be feeling like now. The thing is though, if thats the case and these were discovered then where are the likes of NASA looking?

Well done on making a positive into a negative.

NASA nor anybody eles has a telescope that can see clearly out to where these stars are and just about all exo-planets are found using this method, called doppler spectroscopy.

Good job on him I say!

reply to post by jazz10

What a great way to spend his spare time and make some interesting discoveries!

Congratulations on a job well done, I'm impressed!

This reminds me of a story I just read yesterday in the newspaper, where a ten year old girl and her dad found a supernova in another galaxy. They were pretty serious amateur astronomers, but even so, that's awesome.

And in regards to the poster who asked what NASA was doing... well, there are so many places to look in the night sky that there will always be somewhere NASA hasn't looked, so it's not because of slacking on their part.

great find! S&F
astronomy was my first love
whats cool is he doesn't have a telescope and found these using a computer
visit link [provided by OP] for more details

This is an awesome story, I'd really like to know just how many people in the public are sifting through the data that has been released like this individual.

Experts hoped that by making the data - which had been collected over decades - public would invite the possibility of amateur astronomers making findings of their own. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

Hopefully now a success story will encourage more people to pick this up. In fact i may even look into it (doubtful, this is me trying to be optimistic), but it's hard balancing so many things.

If someone were to make a terrestrial planet discovery with this data then i would be astounded, and look forward to it.

reply to post by jazz10


Where is NASA looking? LMAO

Well first of all NASA itself wouldn't do much looking. They would fund a large telescope or other sensing device in some way and get data back in return.

Second, NASA has been busy funding the discovery of these other 515 planets. Okay, maybe not all of them, but enough to establish that they do indeed actively work at it.

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia

If your goal was to impugn NASA, you definitely missed the mark.
NASA does good work, including landing on the Moon.

Does it still buy Corvettes for astronauts :?)

reply to post by sy.gunson

If you jumped through all the necessary hoops to become an astronaut, you deserve a free Corvette...lol.

NASA (Need another seven astronauts) is an agency we should not believe. Feeding us lies constantly.
Its up to the public like this guy to find new stuff like planets and inform the world.

NASA - what a joke.

reply to post by TheSkinRipper


Hey! Wait a minute before bashing NASA (need anothoer seven astronauts IS NOT funny). NASA provides the means of private corporations and agencies to put satellites into orbit and maintain their respective orbits.

The ever-increasing budgets cuts that NASA faces year after year is part of a problem that hinders NASA from hiring qualifified personnel and investing in cutting-edge technologies.

You want to bash NASA? Go and bash Congress. The only way this guy made these discoveries can be only credited to NASA.