What is Kilonova-Catcher and GRANDMA?

What is Kilonova-Catcher and GRANDMA?#

Kilonova-Catcher (KNC) is the citizen science arm of GRANDMA - the Global Rapid Advanced Network Devoted to Multi-Messenger Astronomy. While GRANDMA coordinates a professional network of robotic and manually operated telescopes around the world, KNC empowers amateur astronomers to contribute directly to real-time gravitational wave and transient follow-up campaigns.

KNC is led by a dedicated team:

KNC Principal Investigator (PI): Dr. Damien Turpin

GRANDMA Principal Investigator (PI): Dr. Sarah Antier

GRANDMA/KNC Operations Lead: Cristina Andrade (Hi!)

KNC Team

How It Works#

  1. Alert Reception
    Potential kilonovae, GRBs, or supernovae are detected and broadcast via NASA’s GCN (Global Coordinates Network) or by the LIGO-VIRGO-KAGRA (LVK) Gravitational Wave network of interferometers. These alerts are automatically ingested into SkyPortal, a professional data hub used by GRANDMA.

  2. Coordination with GRANDMA
    GRANDMA scientists and telescope coordinators use SkyPortal to assign targets and prioritize observations across their global telescope network.

  3. Citizen Scientist Activation
    Once a promising event is identified, KNC leaders extract the relevant target information from SkyPortal and distribute coordinates and observing instructions to KNC participants. This is done both automatically via the #grbalerts channel and manually by the scientists.

  4. Amateur Observations
    KNC members around the world perform follow-up observations using personal or institutional telescopes, then upload their images to the KNC website.

  5. Data Analysis and Feedback
    Professional scientists analyze the submitted images and provide feedback to participants. Confirmed observations are used to measure the brightness and evolution of each transient.

  6. Photometry Submission
    Final photometric measurements are uploaded to SkyPortal, where they are combined with GRANDMA data to build light curves and support scientific publications.

Real Impact#

KNC and GRANDMA have already collaborated on several successful campaigns, including follow-up of gravitational wave events and the SN2023wrk supernova. These efforts show how professional–citizen partnerships can meaningfully advance discovery in multi-messenger astronomy.

You can find more about KNC-GRANDMA publications and KNC activity here. If you need access to this website:

  1. Select Register in the upper right.

  2. When you get to the following page, make sure to select “Join an existing project” and type in “kilonova-catcher”. Refer to Cristina Andrade and Sarah Antier in the comment section.

  3. Then, email or contact myself through Slack to gain access

Contents