Near-Earth Asteroid Discovered Via Crowdsourcing

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Near-Earth Asteroid Discovered Via Crowdsourcing

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @10:17AM from the secret-escape-plans-ruined dept.

astroengine writes "The ESA's Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program has scored its first hit. Although SSA astronomers have detected asteroids before, this is the first time that a near-Earth object (NEO) has been spotted by the group of volunteers who analyze automated data from the 1-meter ESA Optical Ground Station telescope on Tenerife. Although details are scant, asteroid 2011 SF108's orbit takes it to a closest approach of 30 million kilometers (19 million miles, or roughly 100 times the average Earth-moon distance) from Earth — a distance considered 'safe.'"

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that's by rish87 · 2011-10-12 10:24 · Score: 1

no moon!
1. Re:that's by syousef · 2011-10-12 10:56 · Score: 1
  
  no moon!
  "I'm your moon, your my moon, we go round and round in circles"
  
  --
  These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
2. Re:that's by jamiesan · 2011-10-13 01:02 · Score: 1
  
  what she said.
3. Re:that's by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-13 02:49 · Score: 0
  
  Your mom!
They way it went down by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-12 10:29 · Score: 2, Funny

Poster one, "Hey I found NEO a 1,000 miles out"
Poster two, "That's odd. I just found one 900 miles out"
Poster three, "That's cool, the one I just spotted is 800 miles but I can't tell what direction it's headed in?'
Poster four, "You're all wrong it's 500 miles out and stationary. I'd guess it's 50 miles across. Wait I looked again, it's still fixed in the sky but I was wrong it's 75 miles across, er maybe a 100"
Poster five, "I've got you all beat we're having an unscheduled eclipse!"
Poster six, "That's nothing. There's two moons in the sky only one is really, really big. I wonder............."
1. Re:They way it went down by ackthpt · 2011-10-12 10:43 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Poster one, "Hey I found NEO a 1,000 miles out"........
  I wonder if they had moderation?
  
  Poster one, "Hey I found NEO a 1,000 miles out" +1 Interesting
  
  Poster two, "That's odd. I just found one 900 miles out" +1 Interesting
  
  Poster three, "That's cool, the one I just spotted is 800 miles but I can't tell what direction it's headed in?' +1 Interesting
  
  Poster four, "You're all wrong it's 500 miles out and stationary. I'd guess it's 50 miles across. Wait I looked again, it's still fixed in the sky but I was wrong it's 75 miles across, er maybe a 100" +1 Funny
  
  Poster five, "I've got you all beat we're having an unscheduled eclipse!" -1 Troll
  
  Poster six, "That's nothing. There's two moons in the sky only one is really, really big. I wonder............." -1 Overrated
  
  --
  
  A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
2. Re:They way it went down by Nom+du+Keyboard · 2011-10-12 10:59 · Score: 1
  
  Poster one, "Hey I found NEO a 1,000 miles out" +1 Interesting
  "Hey I found NEO a 1,000 miles out" +1 Informative
  
  Parent: +1 Insightful.
  
  --
  "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Old School Crowdsourcing by ackthpt · 2011-10-12 10:38 · Score: 1

Up in the sky .. it's a bird!
It's a plane!
It's Superman!

--

A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
1. Re:Old School Crowdsourcing by osu-neko · 2011-10-12 11:33 · Score: 1
  
  I thought the third line was: "It's a frog!"
  Probably dating myself...
  
  --
  "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
2. Re:Old School Crowdsourcing by jorgevillalobos · 2011-10-12 16:02 · Score: 1
  
  Probably dating myself...
  I think your ID does that job fairly well ;)
What crowd? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-12 10:39 · Score: 0

In this case, 20 volunteers were on-hand, via the Internet, to review the asteroid candidates.

20 volunteers do not make a crowd.
1. Re:What crowd? by xstonedogx · 2011-10-12 10:49 · Score: 1
  
  You're right. Three is a crowd. This was six and two-thirds crowds. When will people learn.
2. Re:What crowd? by taoareyou · 2011-10-12 11:03 · Score: 1
  
  You're right. Three is a crowd.
  Three's Company.
Automate by Nom+du+Keyboard · 2011-10-12 10:56 · Score: 1

Wouldn't this be something that lends itself to automation more easily than crowd sourcing? Just asking...

--
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
1. Re:Automate by astroengine · 2011-10-12 11:08 · Score: 2
  
  It is automated, but only to a point. FTA: "...the telescope scans the sky automatically, looking for any errant chunks of space rock. When an asteroid candidate is identified, the data must be reviewed by a human before the discovery is made."
2. Re:Automate by crotherm · 2011-10-12 15:08 · Score: 1
  
  The idea is that different humans will look at a data sets differently is what this is about. To automate that is nigh impossible.
  
  --
  "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable" - JFK
3. Re:Automate by Dr+La · 2011-10-12 19:55 · Score: 1
  
  Wouldn't this be something that lends itself to automation more easily than crowd sourcing? Just asking...
  Actually, the human eye is still beter at detecting trails on plates than automated systems are, especially where fainter trails are concerned. Automated system also have serious difficulty discerning between real NEA trails and trails from cosmic ray impacts on the sensor.
  
  Spacewatch used automated detection, nevertheless human inspectors discivered 43 additional asteroid trails on the images between 2004 and 2006: trails that the automated routines missed.
  
  --
  Ceterum censeo Carthaginem delendam esse
NEO, you're the one... by technix4beos · 2011-10-12 11:06 · Score: 1

What, no Matrix jokes yet?

--
user@host$ diff /dev/urandom /dev/uspto
old school joke by rubycodez · 2011-10-12 11:09 · Score: 1

Up in the sky .. it's a bird!
It's a plane!
It's Superman!
*farting noise*........*splat*
(wiping face) Ewwwww ......no, it was a bird!
Not a first: Spacewatch did this earlier by Dr+La · 2011-10-12 19:50 · Score: 3, Informative

Interesting as it is, this is not a "first". The Spacewatch program "crowdsourced" the search for NEA by using volunteer plate inspectors between 2004 and 2006 (the Spacewatch FMO project) and discovered 43 new NEA this way (http://fmo.lpl.arizona.edu/discoveries.cfm). I personally discovered 2005 GG81, a small Amor asteroid, as a volunteer plate reviewer in this project.

--
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem delendam esse
Great by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-14 00:55 · Score: 0

I hope the crowd source location is more effective than the crowd sourced evacuation plans in the movies. (Jam the highways and train stations as the monster (asteroid) approaches.