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Daily Minor Planet Volunteers Spot an Asteroid Passing Close to Earth<\/h1>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/smd-cms.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/david-rankin-css-carsonfuls.jpg?w=2000\")
<\/figure>\nThe Catalina Sky Survey telescope \u201cG96\u201d with the follow-up telescope \u201cI52\u201d in the background.<\/div>\nCredit: David Rankin<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nVolunteers working with The Daily Minor Planet<\/a> have made the project\u2019s first big discovery: an asteroid passing very near planet Earth. On the night of October 3rd, a telescope for the Catalina Sky Survey snapped four pictures of a far northern section of the sky. The next day,\u00a0volunteers\u00a0\u00a0H. N. DiRuscio, X. Liao, V. Gonano and E. Chaghafi\u00a0spotted a clear streak moving through each image and quickly notified the\u00a0Daily Minor Planet\u00a0team.<\/p>\nOther telescopes from around the world went on the hunt for this space rock to find where it was heading. Observations of the asteroid came in from New Mexico and Croatia confirming the asteroid\u2019s trajectory. It was found that the asteroid would pass by Earth about twice as far as the moon the next week and that it was about 50 meters (164 feet) in diameter!\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Catalina Sky Survey is a NASA funded project to find dangerous\u00a0Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs)\u00a0based at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona. The Daily Minor Planet is a citizen science project hosted by the Zooniverse that asks volunteers to review animated nightly images taken by this survey to determine if they are real asteroids or false detections. The Daily Minor Planet team has already submitted observations of over 1,000 main belt asteroids and a few dozen\u00a0NEA candidates since it started in May of this year. This is the first one to be independently confirmed and\u00a0published by the Minor Planet Center.<\/a><\/p>\nFortunately, further observations of this object ruled out any possibility of this asteroid hitting the Earth. But\u00a0the\u00a0Daily Minor Planet volunteers continue to search! New data is uploaded after each clear night of observing, so there are always new discoveries to be made. To join the search, visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.zooniverse.org\/projects\/fulsdavid\/the-daily-minor-planet<\/a><\/p>\nNASA\u2019s Citizen Science Program:<\/strong>
Learn about\u00a0NASA citizen science projects<\/a>
Follow on\u00a0X<\/a>
Follow on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\nPowered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\nGet The Details…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Volunteers working with The Daily Minor Planet have made the project\u2019s first big discovery: an asteroid passing very near planet Earth. On the night of October 3rd, a telescope for the Catalina Sky Survey snapped four pictures of a far northern section of the sky. The next day,\u00a0volunteers\u00a0\u00a0H. N. DiRuscio, X. Liao, V. Gonano and [\u2026] Continue reading
<\/figure>Volunteers working with The Daily Minor Planet<\/a> have made the project\u2019s first big discovery: an asteroid passing very near planet Earth. On the night of October 3rd, a telescope for the Catalina Sky Survey snapped four pictures of a far northern section of the sky. The next day,\u00a0volunteers\u00a0\u00a0H. N. DiRuscio, X. Liao, V. Gonano and E. Chaghafi\u00a0spotted a clear streak moving through each image and quickly notified the\u00a0Daily Minor Planet\u00a0team.<\/p>\n Other telescopes from around the world went on the hunt for this space rock to find where it was heading. Observations of the asteroid came in from New Mexico and Croatia confirming the asteroid\u2019s trajectory. It was found that the asteroid would pass by Earth about twice as far as the moon the next week and that it was about 50 meters (164 feet) in diameter!\u00a0<\/p>\n The Catalina Sky Survey is a NASA funded project to find dangerous\u00a0Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs)\u00a0based at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona. The Daily Minor Planet is a citizen science project hosted by the Zooniverse that asks volunteers to review animated nightly images taken by this survey to determine if they are real asteroids or false detections. The Daily Minor Planet team has already submitted observations of over 1,000 main belt asteroids and a few dozen\u00a0NEA candidates since it started in May of this year. This is the first one to be independently confirmed and\u00a0published by the Minor Planet Center.<\/a><\/p>\n Fortunately, further observations of this object ruled out any possibility of this asteroid hitting the Earth. But\u00a0the\u00a0Daily Minor Planet volunteers continue to search! New data is uploaded after each clear night of observing, so there are always new discoveries to be made. To join the search, visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.zooniverse.org\/projects\/fulsdavid\/the-daily-minor-planet<\/a><\/p>\n NASA\u2019s Citizen Science Program:<\/strong> Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n Get The Details…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Volunteers working with The Daily Minor Planet have made the project\u2019s first big discovery: an asteroid passing very near planet Earth. On the night of October 3rd, a telescope for the Catalina Sky Survey snapped four pictures of a far northern section of the sky. The next day,\u00a0volunteers\u00a0\u00a0H. N. DiRuscio, X. Liao, V. Gonano and [\u2026] Continue reading
Learn about\u00a0NASA citizen science projects<\/a>
Follow on\u00a0X<\/a>
Follow on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n