Wednesday 1 September 2021
Space exploration for ordinary people
Hobby astronomers are supposed to find asteroids
Asteroids have a great charm for many people. Ordinary people can now participate in a new project and help in the search for orbs. You don’t even need any prior astronomical knowledge.
Asteroids have always fascinated people – now amateur astronomers can help them find some celestial bodies. In the Projekt “Active Asteroids” They should find so-called active asteroids in the solar system, which are recognizable by a comet-like tail, Northern Arizona University announced. Previous astronomical knowledge is not required, amateur astronomers are trained for their work via an online platform.
Millions of asteroids and comets race across the solar system. They are distinguished primarily on the basis of their composition; However, the difference is not very clearly defined. steroid They are the smaller siblings of the planets, they are made of rocks and minerals. Because it is small and light, its orbit around the Sun does not necessarily remain constant, but can change due to the gravitational forces of other bodies. The name was given to very small objects with a diameter of less than a few tens of meters metropolitan introduced. If they don’t burn up completely when they enter Earth’s atmosphere, but still make it to Earth, they will banding named. Many tons of cosmic matter arrives on Earth every day, but mostly in the form of dust. comets or tail stars are also remnants of the formation of the solar system and consist of ice, dust, and loose rock.
Accordingly, not even 30 such objects, also known as main belt comets, have been discovered since 1949. The goal of the citizen science project developed by researcher Colin Orion Chandler is to quadruple that number at present. More than 10 million asteroid images must be examined – and only one in ten thousand asteroids can be classified as a major comet in the belt.
Where does water come from on Earth?
Main belt comets are small celestial bodies in the Solar System that, like asteroids, orbit in similar orbits to Earth’s, but at least release dust like comets and form temporary tails. Not much is known about its origins yet. As the known number of such things increases, research must be pushed forward. Science hopes, among other things, to provide information on the origin of water on Earth and knowledge where water could also be a prerequisite for life in other solar systems.
Asteroids are mainly found in the asteroid belt, a region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Some can cross the Earth’s orbit due to collisions and interactions with planets. Asteroids are made up largely of metal and rock, while comets are mostly made up of dust and ice. Because of the greater proportion of volatiles that evaporate when heated, comets have typically long tails.
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