Help NASA find new asteroids, install Asteroid Data Hunter

Asteroid Data Hunter is a software developed for NASA to automate the search for asteroids, reports Theverge . Download and install this software here . The program is absolutely free and runs on OS family of Windows 7.1 and above, or on Mac OS 10.10.2 and above. Also in development is an installation package for Ubuntu. This is an open source project, its code is available for everyone on GitHub .

Since ancient times, celestial bodies have been found with the help of long-term observations of certain parts of the sky. Planets, asteroids and comets in the solar system look like stars moving with a certain trajectory, which allows them to be distinguished from real stars. Over the centuries, this principle has not changed. Now when searching for asteroids, a lot of pictures of a certain part of the sky are taken, and then they are analyzed for the presence of moving objects. It is believed that already about 90% of the starry sky of the northern hemisphere in terms of searching for asteroids in the space around the earth has been studied, the situation with the southern one is slightly worse, but the work continues.

Asteroid Data Hunter software will download images from telescopes and analyze them for objects that move like asteroids. The main achievement of the new program is that it will be able to detect 15% more asteroids in the zone between Mars and Jupiter than its predecessors.
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The algorithm can not only recognize new objects, but also compare data on new asteroids with information about those moving closer to the Earth. The application also allows any amateur astronomer to check their images for the presence of asteroids and, when they are found, send information to NASA servers.

This program is extremely useful for NASA, as it will allow to keep in view more asteroids approaching our common home. The obtained data will be able to help in predicting threats, as well as in selecting objects for subsequent missions to study these celestial bodies, if we want to extract minerals from asteroids in the future.

According to information from the developers, Asteroid Data Hunter will work with an accuracy of 80-90%, which will allow to detect several thousand new objects a year.