The world’s foremost Exoplanet competition is back for a fourth year! #ExoCup2020 will pit 32 exoplanets against each other until one is named the grand champion.
This year did not disappoint. 2020 truly struck again with the final drawing over 3,000 votes with claw backs of over 200 votes at least three times. You can listen to us go through all the drama in Exocast-47c.
The Table:
The Selection Process
As with 2019, we looked to the astronomical literature to find the majority of our #ExoCup2020 planets – taking the 24 most-mentioned exoplanets over the past year and putting them directly into the first three 8-planet seeding pots. Also like 2019, we limited entry to one planet per system (meaning TRAPPIST-1 requires a special run-off). That left 8 final wild-cards in pot 4, which we hand-picked to include as diverse a field of left-out planets as we could!
The groups were drawn in Exocast-47 b, where we also explained the process.
Exoplanet Fact Cards:
