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BBC Show Stargazing Live Leads To Exoplanet Discovery

arnodf writes "Tonight BBC's show stargazing live ended after three days of live astronomy with comedian Dara Ó Briain and professor Brian Cox. Throughout the show they were trying to make the viewers help in finding an exoplanet via Zooniverse. Thanks to the program they managed to get 1,084,760 classifications in 48 hours and two volunteers discovered an exoplanet which now bears their name. From the planethunters website: 'Thanks to your help and BBC Stargazing, we managed 1,084,760 classifications in 48 hours. There's still more to do, and more discoveries to be made, so keep clicking!'"

7 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I didn't know you could name them... by vikingpower · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Couldn't NASA get a bit of funding from people who wanted to bid on the rights to name a world? (Unlike copyrights, aren't celestial bodies named FOREVER?).

    No, it couldn't. NASA has nothing to do with naming planets. NASA is a US government agency. The US is one among many countries in the world. Funding such an agency of such a country through such a mechanism would come close to the "sell me a star" or "sell me an acre of moonscape" con trick.

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    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
  2. Re:Great Series of shows by Canazza · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You act like BBC 2 is some obscure channel no-one gets.
    That joke is old and is more suited to BBC 3 or BBC 4. BBC 3 especially since it's about on par with "Dave" since it's reruns of Top Gear and anything starring the cast of Mock the Week obscure any kind of decent programming they'd care to put on.
    Not to mention they advertised it hard on BBC 1 between programmes and it was in alot of the paper TV Guides. I'll admit, the only way I know about the TV Guides is because my gran buys them.

    --
    It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
  3. Re:Great Series of shows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    BBC2 has been around since the early 1960's. I can remember watching the Test Transmission films round about then. The channel was the first to be broadcast in UHF 625 lines as opposed to VHF 405 lines.

    If you don't know about BBC2 then you have missed some really great programmes over the years and I feel kinda sad for your narrow minded existence.
    There is a whole world outside of ITV1 and its soaps, gameshows and celeb TV you know.

  4. Only the BBC could so progs like this by Viol8 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You'd never get a commercial channel doing live astronomy for 3 nights. In fact they barely tough science at all these days except for the occasional Discovery channel funded sensationalist drivel on channel 5 ("OMG , tidal waves, asteroids, earthquakes, we're all gonna die!! - but find out how after the break" type stuff)

    This sort of program alone - almost - makes the license fee worth the money.

    1. Re:Only the BBC could so progs like this by Spad · · Score: 4, Insightful

      A few weeks ago they aired an hour long show on a Sunday evening in which Prof Brian Cox gave a lecture on atomic structure, quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle and wave-particle duality to a bunch of celebrities. It was very edutaining, but can you imagine pitching that show to a commercial network?

    2. Re:Only the BBC could so progs like this by Spad · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Unles everyone thinks so, it isn't worth it.

      By that reasoning, nothing is ever worth it.

    3. Re:Only the BBC could so progs like this by Soruk · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It would be interesting to see if a more fair and commercially balanced TV-scape would give rise to some healthy competition (instead of a scramble to stay alive) that would raise the quality, and maybe even the breadth, of programming across the board if all the broadcasters got a share of the licence fee and they all had to put up with the same commercial realities.

      Have you ever tried to watch American television?

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      -- Soruk