Case Study: SETI Institute achieves faster, collaborative discoveries of new planets with Dropbox

Discovering new planets with Dropbox

The SETI Institute, led by planetary astronomer Franck Marchis, uses the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) on Cerro Pachón, Chile to capture extremely complex, terabyte-scale observations in a global search for exoplanets. With about 100 researchers across the Americas needing to run multiple algorithms on the same raw data, the team faced a challenge of sharing huge files quickly and reliably so discoveries could be made before changing conditions obscured signals.

By making Dropbox the “heart of our pipeline,” the consortium can instantly share new GPI data, collaborate on analysis in real time, and coordinate work across specialties. That speed and reliability helped the team validate discoveries such as the 2015 detection of 51 Eridani b and continues to accelerate their search for smaller, Earth-like planets.

SETI Institute

Franck Marchis

Senior Planetary Astronomer