Last week, NASA announced a new outreach program that I’m sure some of you citizen scientists will want to take part in: Target Asteroids! The space agency is asking amateur astronomers to study various near-Earth objects (NEOs) from an initial list of some 74 that are at least 656 feet (200 meters) in diameter. The catalog will grow because observers are sure to discover more asteroids.
OSIRIS-Rex will visit the asteroid 1999 RQ36 and return back to Earth at least 2.11 ounces (60 grams) of the near-Earth object’s (NEO) surface material. Mission scientists are asking amateur astronomers to observe other NEOs in the program Target Asteroids! to complement the spacecraft’s data. // Illustration by NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
Why? Target Asteroids! will support NASA’s robotic sample-return mission,
OSIRIS-Rex, scheduled to launch in 2016. The ground-based observations will complement the mission data as scientists attempt to learn more about NEOs and find candidates for future asteroid missions. The results also could provide new insights into the formation and evolution of our solar system, the risk of asteroid impacts, and how life came to be on Earth.
This is an opportunity for you to participate in some serious science. NASA is looking for the observations to include at least three images during a half-hour interval and recommends at least an 8-inch telescope to complete the work. (If you don’t have the equipment, the space agency encourages you to rent remote-imaging scopes.) Ideally, citizen scientists would also include astrometry, photometry, and/or spectroscopy data. This would allow for information about an asteroid’s position and orbit, brightness, and spectrum, respectively. The data collection will last until the end of the decade.
I know many of you are serious astroimagers and really into citizen science, so I encourage you to check out the Target Asteroids! information page. NASA needs you, as it’s difficult for professional astronomers to get adequate telescope time to study NEOs in detail. And, who knows, your name just might show up in a future OSIRIS-Rex paper.