NASA wants backyard astronomers to help track asteroids - Indian Express

Reuters : Washington, Wed Jun 19 2013, 09:17 hrs NASA called on backyard astronomers and other citizen-scientists on Tuesday to help track asteroids that could create havoc on Earth. The U.S. space agency has already identified 95 per cent of the potentially planet-killing NEOs - near Earth objects - with a diameter of .62 miles (1 km) or more, a size comparable to the space rock many scientists believe wiped out the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. Now NASA wants to work with individuals, government agencies, international partners and academia to "find all asteroid threats to human populations and know what to do about them." Between 50 and 100 amateur astronomers are doing what is called light-curve analysis on space rocks, making repeated images of the astronomical bodies to help determine their characteristics, said Jason Kessler, program executive for what NASA calls Astroid Grand Challenge. "We're certainly going to need more help with that as our detection rate goes up," Kessler said by telephone. He acknowledged that what NASA aims to do, at least in part, is to crowd-source asteroid detection. Even smaller space rocks can be dangerous, whether or not they hit the Earth. In February, a meteorite about 19 yards (17 metres) in diameter exploded over central Russia, shattering windows, damaging buildings and injuring 1,200 people. Earlier this month, an asteroid the size of a small truck zoomed past the Earth four times closer than the moon, crossing within about 65,000 miles (105,000 km) over the Southern Ocean south of Tasmania, Australia. Estimates suggest less than 10 percent of NEOs smaller than 328 yards (300 metres) across have been detected, and less than 1 percent of objects smaller than 109 yards (100 metres) in diameter have been detected, NASA said in a statement. The initiative aims to detect all NEOs of 33 yards (30 metres) or larger, Kessler said. ... contd. ALSO READ Four Americans killed in attack on Afghan base: US official US reporter who felled General McChrystal dies in crash US Man tosses ex-wife off cruise ship US and Taliban to talk in Doha for Afghan peace Please read our terms of use before posting comments TERMS OF USE: The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s). via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNE91KbdLKD8cCswBBDE8JoSrNCUQQ&url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/nasa-wants-backyard-astronomers-to-help-track-asteroids/1130963/

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