Started distributed project Stardust @ Home
On Tuesday, the largest distributed research project in the history of mankind started. More than one hundred thousand volunteers around the world will donate 30.000 man-hours of their work via the Internet.
Unlike SETI @ Home and dozens of other research projects of the past years, here scientists do not need distributed computing powers. The project Stardust @ Home involves the accumulation of human labor. Each user who has access to the Internet can download one of the millions of space photos and check if there is stardust on it.
The story of the Stardust @ Home project began on February 7, 1999, when the small science ship Stardust (“Star dust”) was launched into space. His task was to penetrate the tail of Comet Wild 2 and collect samples of matter - the so-called interstellar dust. The smallest particles were caught with a special airgel collector, in which they got stuck and did not collapse ( photo ). Scientists believe that these particles are the oldest material that has remained unchanged since the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. Humanity first had a unique chance to explore such an ancient substance in an intact form. After all, it was from this substance that our sun and earth were once formed.
The space mission was successful on January 15, 2006, after seven years of travel and 3 billion km. the spacecraft traveled back and returned to the Earth a capsule with samples of star dust. Scientists found it in the desert of Utah and carefully removed the intact airgel collector, then placed it in a microscope and carefully scanned the entire surface of 1000 square meters. see. The collector itself is about the size of a tennis racket and is divided into 130 cells ( photo ). Pictures should be carefully reviewed for the presence of a foreign substance. According to the calculations of specialists, there should be from 40 to 100 particles of diameters of several microns each. Of course, a group of scientists could not cope with this work on their own within a reasonable time, and computer programs cannot recognize what they have never seen before (there are simply no samples for the recognition program). Therefore, scientists turned to Internet users for help and launched the distributed project Stardust @ Home.
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In fact, the photos were supposed to be posted on the Internet in May, but the scientists had problems scanning the airgel. It turned out that its surface in space was slightly damaged. This problem was solved for several months. Therefore, the project was launched on the Internet only in August 2006.
Now 40,000 “films” are posted on the site, each of which contains a series of photographs of one section of airgel with a focus on different depths: from 20 to 100 microns. New “films” will be added regularly until the beginning of 2007, and their total number will be 700 thousand. Each picture will be cross-checked by numerous users, so that no particle should go unnoticed.
To increase recognition accuracy, each project participant must receive a special briefing and perform a series of tests on Stardust @ Home, trying to distinguish real cosmic particles from artificial scratches and airgel damage. A person who, via the Internet, will be the first to find an intact particle of interstellar substance, will receive the right to give it a name and will be mentioned in all scientific works and encyclopedias. In fact, he will make his name in human history.
Unlike SETI @ Home and dozens of other research projects of the past years, here scientists do not need distributed computing powers. The project Stardust @ Home involves the accumulation of human labor. Each user who has access to the Internet can download one of the millions of space photos and check if there is stardust on it.
The story of the Stardust @ Home project began on February 7, 1999, when the small science ship Stardust (“Star dust”) was launched into space. His task was to penetrate the tail of Comet Wild 2 and collect samples of matter - the so-called interstellar dust. The smallest particles were caught with a special airgel collector, in which they got stuck and did not collapse ( photo ). Scientists believe that these particles are the oldest material that has remained unchanged since the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. Humanity first had a unique chance to explore such an ancient substance in an intact form. After all, it was from this substance that our sun and earth were once formed.
The space mission was successful on January 15, 2006, after seven years of travel and 3 billion km. the spacecraft traveled back and returned to the Earth a capsule with samples of star dust. Scientists found it in the desert of Utah and carefully removed the intact airgel collector, then placed it in a microscope and carefully scanned the entire surface of 1000 square meters. see. The collector itself is about the size of a tennis racket and is divided into 130 cells ( photo ). Pictures should be carefully reviewed for the presence of a foreign substance. According to the calculations of specialists, there should be from 40 to 100 particles of diameters of several microns each. Of course, a group of scientists could not cope with this work on their own within a reasonable time, and computer programs cannot recognize what they have never seen before (there are simply no samples for the recognition program). Therefore, scientists turned to Internet users for help and launched the distributed project Stardust @ Home.
')
In fact, the photos were supposed to be posted on the Internet in May, but the scientists had problems scanning the airgel. It turned out that its surface in space was slightly damaged. This problem was solved for several months. Therefore, the project was launched on the Internet only in August 2006.
Now 40,000 “films” are posted on the site, each of which contains a series of photographs of one section of airgel with a focus on different depths: from 20 to 100 microns. New “films” will be added regularly until the beginning of 2007, and their total number will be 700 thousand. Each picture will be cross-checked by numerous users, so that no particle should go unnoticed.
To increase recognition accuracy, each project participant must receive a special briefing and perform a series of tests on Stardust @ Home, trying to distinguish real cosmic particles from artificial scratches and airgel damage. A person who, via the Internet, will be the first to find an intact particle of interstellar substance, will receive the right to give it a name and will be mentioned in all scientific works and encyclopedias. In fact, he will make his name in human history.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/4238/
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