A new tool can search through large archives of data to find potentially dangerous space rocks. It has already detected more than 100 previously undiscovered asteroids.
The B612 Foundation in California, which is a nonprofit organization that works to protect the planet from near Earth asteroids and track objects in the solar system, announced the discoveries Tuesday.
According to the organization, its new platform, Asteroid Discovery analysis and Mapping (or ADAM), is open-source and cloud-based. It allows researchers to find new asteroids without having to launch an asteroid-hunting telescope or gather additional astronomical observations.
Instead, the algorithm links points that correspond with the orbits and locations of asteroids using a vast array of night sky images. The algorithm can calculate the orbit of the cosmic object and track it if that is confirmed, according to B612 Foundation.
According to Ed Lu, an ex-NASA astronaut and executive director at the B612 Foundation’s Asteroid Institute, “any telescope that has an archive can now be an asteroid search telescope.”
Lu stated in a statement that “We are using massive computation to enable more discoveries from existing telescopes but also to locate and track asteroids within historical images of the skies that had previously gone unnoticed since they were not intended for asteroid search.”
NASA has reported that nearly 30,000 near-Earth asteroids were discovered so far. NASA is especially concerned about a small number of space rocks measuring at least 460 feet in diameter and swinging within 4.6 millions miles of Earth’s orbit around it.
The platform was used to search through images from the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona, over a period of 30 days. This allowed the platform to test the Asteroid Discovery Analysis and Mapping System. Images were taken from nearly 68 million astronomical observations that the lab has accumulated between 2012 and 2019.
The search resulted in the discovery of 104 new asteroids, which were confirmed and added to Minor Planet Center’s asteroid database. The Minor Planet Center was established in 1947 and is responsible for cataloging comets, asteroids and other objects within the solar system.
“The Asteroid Institute’s work is crucial because astronomers are reaching new limits with current techniques, telescopes, and telescopes,” Mario Juric (an associate professor of Astronomy at the University of Washington), stated in a statement.
Juric and Joachim Moeyens were graduate students at the University of Washington who co-created this new algorithm.
Google Cloud is used to store large amounts of data and perform complex computations that verify each point of light.
Scientists can now use the Asteroid Discovery Analysis & Mapping platform to search for asteroids. This adds to the research being done by NASA and other space agencies.