Anyone with an internet connection can now join University of Arizona researchers as they work to discover asteroids hurtling through our solar system. Anyone can become an asteroid hunter thanks to a new program launched by astronomers at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.
that opens their mission – the discovery and identification of space rocks that regularly visit Earth’s neighborhood – to the general public.
Artist’s impression of a near-Earth object in space. NASA is on the lookout for near-Earth objects – neighboring asteroids and comets – that could possibly impact Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, an online platform for people-powered research. Through the website, volunteers without any specialized training or expertise assist professional researchers from various fields.
“With enough people participating, you can establish a general consensus, so there’s less margin of error,” Christensen said. While the lab’s software detects and records all asteroid sightings, Catalina Sky Survey is a NASA-funded project with the mission of specifically tracking and discovering near-Earth objects, or NEOs. NEOs are asteroids that have strayed from the flock of space rocks plodding around the sun in the asteroid belt between. Their new orbits take them much closer to Earth, and some pose a potential threat if their orbit crosses that of Earth.
“NEOs move so erratically that it’s easy to miss them,” Christensen said. “We try not to filter out false detections too aggressively because this could also filter out some NEOs.”
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