ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

TAOS: The Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey

Okay kiddo. Do you know what stars are?

Stars are like little light bulbs in the sky. Sometimes, we can't see them because the sun is too bright during the day. But at night, we can look up in the sky and see them twinkling.

Now, scientists want to study these stars to learn more about them. Some stars are very far away and very hard to see. That's where the Taos project comes in.

The Taos project is a group of scientists who have set up special cameras to look at the stars in the sky. They want to find out if there are any planets or other things orbiting around these stars.

But why is it called "Taiwanese-American occultation survey?"

That's because the scientists are from both Taiwan and America, and they use something called occultation to help them study the stars.

Occultation is when something passes in front of a star, like a planet or asteroid. When this happens, the light from the star gets blocked for a little while. The Taos cameras can detect these tiny dips in light and record them.

Then, the scientists can use this data to figure out how big the object was that passed in front of the star and how far away it is.

So basically, the Taos project helps scientists study stars in the sky to learn more about them and if there are any planets or other things orbiting around them. They do this by using special cameras that can detect when something passes in front of the stars and blocks their light.