Active asteroids behave dynamically like asteroids, but exhibit coma like comets. These objects are poorly understood, and fewer than 60 have been identified to date.
Asteroids discovered to be active as a result of the Active Asteroid Project: (af) Candidates for active asteroids and main-belt comets. (g) Active centaur. (hl) Active sub-Hilda asteroid. (mt) Jupiter-based comets.Image credit: Chandler other10.3847/1538-3881/ad1de2.
Active asteroids appear to have comet-like tails, but they follow orbits primarily within the asteroid belt.
Near-Earth asteroid (4015) Wilson-Harrington, the first active asteroid with a prominent tail, was discovered in 1949.
Fewer than 60 asteroids have been confirmed to be active in the past 70 years, a small fraction of the 1.3 million known asteroids, and the majority of discoveries have occurred in just the past 25 years.
citizen science project active asteroida NASA partner, is designed to find these rare objects.
Launched on August 31, 2021, the project is hosted on the Zooniverse online platform and has over 8,300 volunteers.
To find new active asteroids, volunteers combed through 430,000 images taken by the satellite. dark energy camera (DECam) instrument located on the 4 m Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tororo Inter-American Observatory.
“For an amateur astronomer like me, this is a dream come true,” said Virgilio Gonano, a volunteer from Udine, Italy.
“Congratulations to all the staff and friends who checked out the images!”
The volunteers were able to identify previously unknown activity in 15 asteroids and one Centaurus that were thought to be asteroids (i.e. inactive).
“I'm a member of the Active Asteroids team from the first batch of data,” said Tiffany Shaw Diaz, a volunteer from Dayton, Ohio, USA.
“And it is no exaggeration to say that this project has become an important part of my life.”
“I look forward to classifying subjects every day, as time and health permit. I am deeply honored to work with such esteemed scientists on a regular basis.”
of the project new paper Published in astronomy magazine.
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colin orion chandler other. 2024. Active Asteroid Citizen Science Program: Overview and First Results. A.J. 167, 156; doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ad1de2
Source: www.sci.news
