“Asteroid hunters.” It sounds like some Hollywood blockbuster / straight-to-DVD “classic” that already exists, but now you, yes you, can be one… from your PC. NASA has launched a desktop app that recruits civilians to help identify asteroids from telescope photography, helped by a special asteroid algorithm. Scientists announced the desktop app at SXSW during in a panel discussion where they elaborated on how muggles citizen scientists were helping their efforts to identify and tag asteroids. The app is another collaboration between NASA and Planetary Resources. (It’s apparently all under a Space Act agreement, which is the coolest act we’ve heard of in a while.)
via Engadget

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