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|    Message 11,570 of 11,639    |
|    MrPostingRobot@kymhorsell.com to All    |
|    unusual light variations seen by space t    |
|    06 Sep 22 02:11:41    |
      EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:       - We have produced 3 movies of the TESS data watching 1000s of stars       for planetary transits.       - The first movie shows the variation of average brightness of the       primary pixels representing each star. The movie shows many regions       of sky seem to brighten and darken together. Some bright or dark lines of       10x10 deg tiles appear and disappear suddenly. At times areas twinkle       synchronously, which seems unusual. There are also single tiles that       darken or brighten and remain dark or bright for hours or days. These       are not so unusual -- they may represent flaring or transit of a       planet. Each tile is the average of several randomly-assigned stars       but if one of them varies in brightness markedly the average will also       show that.       - The 2nd movie shows the same calculation but for "background pixels"       around the main target pixel for each star. We expect to see more       anomalous activity given the tiles are averaged over 100s of pixels       and not just several. And that's what we see. We also note bright       events are more common than the first movie but dark events seem less       common. This is understandable given we are no longer seeing       objects block the central pixel of the star and pixels away from the star       may not be normally that bright to start with.       - The 3rd movie, still coming off the pipeline, shows       quality-controlled and lightly processed versions of the central pixel       flux. These data are meant for use by researchers looking for       planetary transits. We note the processing done by the TESS group       apparently achieves its aim of removing noise. We see in our movie the       position for each planet seem to be surrounded by a dark tile -- an       indication the processing by the TESS group actually is trying to       suppress light pollution from each planet, the sun, the moon and the earth.       We also note there is much less anomalous brightening and darkening. The       processing has eliminated a good part of the activity we are trying to observe.                     The s/w has re-computed its movies using parts of the TESS dataset other       than the pixels representing "stars of interest" for planetary transits.              The TESS project has targeted about 5000 bright or close stars for       close-up examination for planetary transits. Unlike the Kepler       telescope TESS is mostly looking for single transits so doesn't follow       particular stars for many months or years. But similar to Kepler its       output files consist of "FITS files" that contain several data-streams       extracted from the raw ~2000x2000 images.              The primary output is the flux as measured by the relevant CCD array       at the pixel selected to be the "target pixel" for the given star.       Deep-diving users of the system can fish around and select whichever       pixels they determine to best measure the brightness of the star at       any time, but the default output in the FITS files is the value used       in my current crunching.              There are additional streams of data that might be useful for       planetary transits and also for us here -- looking for things that       might be moving around between the earth and the moon.              The first secondary output is a "background" value that shows the       average over several pixels up, down, left and right of the main       target pixel. For transits it may be possible to see a little dot away       from the target star that represents something interesting. For us       here the background is just a larger area to examine for funny bright       and dark areas that may move from region to region in the sky TESS is       looking at over a given period.              Finally, there is a "cleaned up" central pixel coded as PDCFLUX. This       is meant to be a quality controlled and noise-reduced version of the       central pixel flux and may be worth a look given we have looked at the       main central pixel data anyway.              The s/w has crunched through the 13000 frames for each 10x10 deg       section of the sky (the TESS image itself is around 14x14 deg which       each pixel around 26 arc seconds across) for the primary pixel flux       and also the background area around the primary pixel for each       star. I've only downloaded 3000 FITS files so far -- must over 1/2 the       available data. Data is still being gathered and some of the later       data in my download is only a couple months old.              The movie of the sky as determined by the central flux of several       stars allocated to each 10x10 deg tile is at        |
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