Syracuse (WSYR-TV/CNN) – Turns out you don't have to be a professional astronomer to discover a new planet.
A group of amateur skywatchers are working with an international team of scientists to identify a new one.
Using astronomical data from
NASA's Kepler spacecraft, citizen scientists participating in the "
Planet Hunters" program helped make the discovery.
Their find marks the first reported case of a planet orbiting a double star -- which is itself orbited by a second pair of distant stars.
The unusual phenomenon is known as a circumbinary planet in a four-star system. But you can call it PH1.
Planet Hunters is a program led by Yale University, which gives the public the chance to review Kepler's data.
Scientists say PH1 is a bit larger than Neptune.
