NASA Wants You to Help Spot Icy Blobs
All of the space data that the Hubble Telescope is broadcasting is far too much for a handful of scientists to sift through in a timely manner. So using the power of technology and the time and interest of citizen scientists several space-based science projects are underway through a project called Zooniverse.
The latest program is a joint effort with NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto. The space agency is enlisting the help of thousands of citizen scientists to analyze images to identify Kuiper Belt Objects.
The Kuiper Belt is a field of icy rocks that begins where Neptune’s orbit ends. Pluto is no longer a planet but it is still the destination in 2015 for the New Horizons program. Once the space probe passes Pluto it will study two other large Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). And that’s where Icehunters comes in.
Citizen Scientists circle white dots in the search for Kuiper Belt Objects to help NASA find targets
The new Zooniverse citizen science initiative starts with all different quality images of the Kuiper Belt, complete with bright stars that wash out images, cosmic rays, asteroids and other noise. People from all over the world log in and pour over pictures, circling potential KBOs.
Scientists look at the objects that many independent participants circle and conduct further analysis in hopes of spotting a good target for the New Horizons misison to study.
Zooniverse has nine live projects looking at different scientific questions relating to the universe. Planethunters is perhaps the most well known, giving citizen scientists the opportunity to find a new extra solar planet.
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