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Stardust@Home Lets Public Search Grains of Dust

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the bad-excuses-to-get-out-of-a-date dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In a new project called Stardust@home, UC Berkeley researchers are inviting Internet users to help them search for a few dozen submicroscopic grains of interstellar dust captured by NASA's Stardust spacecraft. Rather than relying on the user's spare PC cycles, though, the system depends on their eyes." From the article: "Though Stardust's main mission was to capture dust from the tail of comet Wild 2 - dust dating from the origins of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago - it also captured a sprinkling of dust from distant stars, perhaps created in supernova explosions less than 10 million years ago."

21 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Time is money by PrinceAshitaka · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My computer cycles I could care less about but my time is valuable to me. Are there really that many people out there that A. want to to this AND B. have the time to do this. I am sure there are many people in catagory A and in catagory B. How many people are in both catagories?

    --
    quis custodiet ipsos custodes
    1. Re:Time is money by germ!nation · · Score: 2, Insightful

      amihotornot, ratemypoo et al. People have *plenty* of time to burn. Welcome to the internet.

    2. Re:Time is money by gkhan1 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yiu're forgetting the all important category C) is able to do it. This is not something everyone can do, you have to be tested first to see if you can be part of the project.

    3. Re:Time is money by 4D6963 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Mod parent up (way underrated)

      I agree, most people out here have time on their hands, just for reading and commetning in Slashdot for example.

      Also, i'm in both A and B categories, willing to do this and unemployed. Whether I do that, whether I watch porn, basically..

      --
      You just got troll'd!
  2. Is it just me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...or is distributed computing itself being overdistributed? If they keep it up, everyone will be running a completely unique @home program by themselves, defeating the entire purpose. :P

  3. Many eyes by spge · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If people are prepared to spot themselves on Google Earth, as well as other things, there's no reason why they won't look for specks of stardust.

  4. NASA have already used internet users' eyeballs by Trisha-Beth · · Score: 5, Informative

    Admittedly the search was for larger objects on Mars than the tiny flecks of space stuff from this mission.

  5. Site link by gkhan1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    for those of you to lazy to read the entire thing, here is a link to the website http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

  6. User Error? by Voltageaav · · Score: 2, Funny

    Useing the mass public for something like this seems risky. For instance, right now I'm so tired I'm seeing stars and this thing isn't even on my computer.

    --
    Someone save me from this sanity.
  7. Dust... Obliguraty little britian quote by rf0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Marjorie Dawes: Dust. Anybody? No? High in fat, low in fat? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust. It's actually very low in fat. You can have as much dust as you like.

    --
    Cheap UK and US VPS
    1. Re:Dust... Obliguraty little britian quote by mysticwhiskey · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, but no, but yeah, but no... I'm so totally not obligurated to answer that question, like?

      --

      Stuck down a hole! In the middle of the night! With an owl!

  8. Image processing/pattern recognition? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why wouldn't they use image processing or pattern recognition techniques to do this? I couldn't find anything about this in the article, but i'm sure that if humans are able to detect specks of dust, they can also train a pattern recognizer to do the same, if not better.

    1. Re:Image processing/pattern recognition? by SSonnentag · · Score: 2, Informative

      I work with digital video images. People have been trying for years, if not decades, to write software that can mimic the capabilities of the human eye. Usually this software is needed for auto tracking and scoring objects in the field of view. Some limited success has been achieved, but even the best software needs a human to make the initial detection. The pattern recognition capabilities of the human eye are absolutely phenomenal. I doubt computer software will ever be able to replace us in this area.

  9. International Stardust Registry by aapold · · Score: 4, Funny

    The International Stardust Registry gift package is now available for a reasonable fee. It includes a beautiful 12" x 16" parchment certificate, available framed or unframed, with the name of your choice, dedication date, and coordinates of the particle of stardust. You'll also receive an informative booklet with details on the computer user who described your particle of stardust.

    What better gift for a loved one or friend than a particle of stardust named in their honor? Note - we have been asked that no further particles be named "Ziggy".

    --
    "Waste not one watt!" - CZ
  10. The Missing Link by squoozer · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Stardust@Home Project where you can pre-register and find out more.

    --
    I used to have a better sig but it broke.
  11. Using porn sites by Frans+Faase · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Maybe they could set up a porn-site where you have to 'pay' by judging an image. It seems that this technique is used a lot by cyber-criminals for surpassing the "human-only" test that are used during registration to prevent robots from registering. These test consist of text messages that are easy to read by humans but not by computers. It is a very smart idea to use humans (horny men, in this case) for performing a simple "computational" task.

    I wonder if this idea can be extended. Using humans to perform computational tasks sounds to be a very interesting business model.

  12. Couldnt a computer do this better ? by bxbaser · · Score: 2, Interesting

    if a human can recognize the trails shouldnt a computer be able to ?
    The article didnt mention any reason why a computer would not be able to do this.
    does anyone know anything more about this.

    makes me wonder is this is some sort of trial to test a distributed voulenteer workforce and they needed something interesting to get participants.

  13. If I discover a particle... by BHennessy · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...will they name it after me?

  14. NASA graphical page for Stardust location by psiXaos · · Score: 3, Informative

    Where is Stardust now?

    --
    "Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity" - Machine Beauty
  15. In a different exciting development... by lxs · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm launching "cleaning@home" where users get the thrilling opportunity to keep my house clean. Users only have to show up at my door where they can aquire the "bucket-n-mop" application which effectively harnesses their spare "work-cycles".

    This morning I was quoted as saying "This is a great new field for distributed applications. - careful the floor is still wet!"

  16. That old question from college... by FenwayFrank · · Score: 2, Funny

    So if we hook this up with the SETI@home program, could we look for intelligent life in the universe that's inside the speck of dust? "Beam me up, Scotty: there's no intelligent life down here."