The Ariel EDU programme is an initiative that aims to introduce the science of the Ariel space mission to students of all levels. Specifically, the mission can be used as a great vehicle for inspiration, engagement and involvement in the modern space era.
More particularly, the Ariel EDU programme aims to:
- Bring exoplanet science into the classroom
- Inspire as many students as possible
- Ignite curiosity for other worlds (including the possibility of life on some of them)
- Effectively communicate facts about exoplanets and break common misconceptions
- Communicate the importance of respect for our own planet
Current activities and educational projects
ExoClock project: for university students, high school students and astronomy enthusiasts (amateur astronomer and citizen scientists)
The ExoClock project (exoclock.space) is an open, integrated platform, with the aim of continuously monitoring the ephemerides of the targets for the Ariel space mission. The project is dedicated to the planets of the Ariel target list and it was founded in 2019 (Kokori et al. 2021).
The project is following an open science framework, fostering collaborations and partnerships with observatories and universities from all over the world that participate with transit observations to increase the mission efficiency. At the same time, the project implements aspects of citizen science as participants include members of the public from diverse backgrounds (amateur astronomers, citizen scientists, university students, schools).
So far, several school projects have been organised in the context of ExoClock. High school students participate by organising a transit observation , observing the planet, and analyse the data with user friendly software. Through this project, students experience in practice how astronomers work in the new space era and also have the chance to contribute to a real space mission. If you are interested in organising a project with your students, don’t hesitate to come in touch!
All the educational resources and the tools to perform the different steps of the project are provided by the ExoClock team.
For more information visit: exoclock.space
contact point: Anastasia Kokori, PhD candidate at UCL, ExoClock project founder and coordinator
email: anastasia.kokori.19@ucl.ac.uk
Ariel Hackathons: for university students, high school students and machine learning enthusiasts
Participate in Ariel Hackathons coordinated by the Ariel Data Challenge – Explore Exoplanets, Innovate with AI, and Shape the Future of Space Science!
Calling all coders, data enthusiasts, space lovers, and curious minds! Whether you’re a seasoned developer, a student, or simply passionate about space, Ariel Hackathons are your gateway to the thrilling world of exoplanet science and cutting-edge AI/ML innovation!
The Ariel Hackathons were developed to complement the Ariel Data Challenge, as an exercise to introduce the application of CS/ML to exoplanetary science problems, and demonstrate what can be achieved. Ariel Hackathons are accessible to all levels of experience with computer science and machine learning, and can act as a conduit to deeper engagement with the Ariel mission through participation in the Ariel Data Challenges.
The Ariel Data Challenge has been running for five years, growing with each successive year. The Challenge has twice featured at the prestigious ML conference NeurIPS, and the most recent challenge was hosted by the popular Google LLC data science platform, Kaggle. Each year, the challenge presents a different problem with exoplanetary atmospheric data, and participants are tasked with providing a model solution over a number of weeks. Whilst the challenge is open to all, participation requires both time commitment and effort, with a comprehension hurdle of the explanatory material provided by the challenge.
The Ariel Hackathons provide an engagement ramp to the Challenges, presenting short-form ‘mini’ Ariel Data Challenges to be completed over one to two days at in-person events, directly supervised by the Ariel Data Challenge team. In this way, the Hackathons give participants the opportunity to grow their experience and comfort with the application of machine learning to exoplanetary science, without the pressure of commitment to the longer Challenges.
In addition, like the Ariel Data Challenge, Ariel Hackathon events invite you to dive into real-world challenges inspired by the Ariel Space Mission—a groundbreaking effort to study distant planets and their atmospheres.
A new website is in development, but in the meantime information on our most recent hackathon can be found here: https://www.ariel-datachallenge.space/esa-datalabs25/
Contact point: Gordon (Kai Hou) Yip, Associate Lecturer at UCL, Lead and founder of the Ariel Data Challenge
Email: kai.hou.yip@ucl.ac.uk
ORBYTS: for high school students
Orbyts and the Ariel Mission: Secondary School Students are Helping us to Understand Alien Worlds!
The Orbyts Programme has been creating inspirational partnerships between researchers and secondary schools in the UK for the past 9 years. Although it started with an exoplanet focus, specifically computing molecular line lists in association with the BSSL Twinkle mission, it has since expanded to almost, if not all fields within physics.
Exoplanets, however continue to be a core interest of the researchers and school students alike (after all it’s not hard to be excited by the concept of alien worlds and their almost unimaginable diversity). As such, multiple Orbyts projects over the previous years have surrounded unanswered questions in the exoplanet field in association with the upcoming Ariel mission. These projects have included multiple schools observing exoplanet transits with robotic telescopes to refine their ephemerides, a study into how different cloud models affect transmission spectra and also a study into chemical species detectability in transmission with both Ariel and JWST.
Ariel has also played a key role in the Orbyts STAR (STudents Advancing Research) pilot scheme launched earlier this year (2024); a bespoke project conducted in partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital and the students and teachers in it’s hospital school. Appropriately, given the project name, Orbyts STAR students repeatedly observed several of the most active stars in the current Ariel target list to get a better idea of their epoch-to-epoch variability and place constraints on their surface activity.
Find out more about the Orbyts programme and its national impact here: https://www.orbyts.org/impact
general contact: info@orbyts.org
Contact point: Alex Thompson, Hub Lead (UCL Astro) and STAR Lead Researcher
email: alex.thompson.17@ucl.ac.uk
Activity for high school students: Measuring the size of an exoplanet with real data!
- How do astronomers measure the size of exoplanets?
- What can a light curve say about the nature of the planet?
- Particularly, how do we know how big or small exoplanets are?
In this activity students will use real data of a telescope to measure the size of an exoplanet, just as astronomers do.
All the guidelines and the material for the activity can be found here:
https://astroedu.iau.org/en/activities/measuring-an-exoplanet/
If you have any questions or ideas for potential Ariel-related projects, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
For more general information, you can contact Anastasia Kokori, Ariel EDU coordinator
email: anastasia.kokori.19@ucl.ac.uk