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About Hack an exoplanet

"Hack an exoplanet" is a new ESA Education project. (If you haven't heard about ESA, it’s the European version of NASA. More information here) The year 2023 is the first year of this challenge. The project is designed for students between 11 and 19 years old from the whole world. In order to be able to join the challenge you don't need relevant education or any courses. Everyone can participate. 

We learned about ESA's project from the Deputy Director of our high school, who sent the informational email to all students. The project immediately impressed us.

There are seminars all over the world for all applicants, which are called "hackathons". We joined one of them, which took place in Prague Planetarium from 2 till 3 of June. We spent 24 hours in the building dedicated to the exploration of the universe. We intensively worked on our project, but well, we slept there too. 24 hours is too long for staying awake, the longer after a full day at school. But we haven’t left our work - we slept in sleeping bags under our working tables.

Honestly, our team had no idea about exploring exoplanets or astronomical work at the beginning. But during the project, we learned a lot of interesting information, when we were lost we were assisted by the organizers and by the end of the 24 hours we felt that we found a new passion. It was a lot of work, even at home after the event we had things to complete, but we had a laugh and, most importantly, we learned a lot. It was an incredible experience.

Are you ready to be part of it? Step by step we show you what and how we've discovered about our target of interest - the exoplanet TOI-560 c. Prepare for a 103-light-years-long journey. Let's get started...

Link to the Prague hackathon (only in Czech) here


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