In order to protect planet Earth from threats of asteroid impact, it is essential to know where these rocky objects are. These days, the task of hunting for asteroids is no longer limited to scientists. Ordinary folks may now be able to become asteroid hunters with the aid of their own computer.
An application based on an algorithm developed by a NASA contest increases the odds of amateur astronomers discovering more asteroids. Analysis of images of the solar system's main asteroid belt showed a 15 percent increased chance of identifying new asteroid using this algorithm.
On Sunday, March 15, NASA announced the release of the computer application that was developed by the U.S. space agency in collaboration with Planetary Resources, Inc., a Washington-based company that aims to mine asteroids.
The application's algorithm is derived from the Asteroid Data Hunter challenge, which offered rewards for participants to develop algorithms for identifying asteroids in images taken by ground-based telescopes.
"We applaud all the participants in the Asteroid Data Hunter challenge. We are extremely encouraged by the algorithm created and it's already making a difference. This increase in knowledge will help assess more quickly which asteroids are potential threats, human destinations or resource rich," said Planetary Resources president Chris Lewicki. "It has been exciting for our team to work with NASA on this project, and we also look forward to future space-based systems leveraging these results."
Astronomers hunt for asteroids by taking images of the same location in the sky and finding star-like objects that move between the frames. Although they are flooded with data from amateur astronomers and citizen scientists, astronomers have difficulty verifying the claims. The software, however, will allow scientists to check the images that are provided by enthusiasts and determine which ones are promising enough to merit further investigation.
The Asteroid Data Hunter program, which can be downloaded and used for free, is designed for both Windows and Mac. It will also become available for Linux soon. The program enlists the help of the public to hunt for asteroids using astronomical data from various telescopes.
Amateur astronomers can use images from their telescopes and analyze these using the application, which will tell whether or not a matching asteroid record already exists. Any new findings are then reported to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the new discoveries to be confirmed and archived.
