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In the NewsScience in Students' Hands in Asteroid-Spotting PlanSource: Jessica Coomes, "Science in students' hands in asteroid-spotting plan ," Arizona Republic, September 6, 2005. FOUNTAIN HILLS - James Ashley dreams of putting the future of all Earthlings in the hands of children. The scientist from Fountain Hills studies asteroids, comets and other space junk that could come hurtling toward Earth. While computer software already analyzes images of the sky to spot potential objects of destruction, Ashley says human eyes can find things the software misses. But, he thought, who has the time to study so many images of the sky? Students. "I like the idea of putting science in the hands of the public and students," he said. Ashley received a $6,100 grant from an international space interest group to facilitate his project, which is called the Asteroid Discovery Station. He's already enlisted the help of some students in New Zealand and has worked with the Challenger Space Center in Peoria. A telescope that's 2 feet in diameter sits just outside of Flagstaff and takes images of a piece of sky four different times in a night. Those four images later are played one after the other. Imagine those cartoon books that appear to move when you flip the pages. You can pick out the comets or asteroids because they appear to be moving while the stars stay put. "We thought, wouldn't it be cool to let kids do this," Ashley said. Since 1998, that telescope has recorded about 60 such image groups each night for the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search program. Ashley is getting his hands on those archived images, and his grant from the Planetary Society will buy a data server to store the images. An image group could show anywhere from dozens of moving objects to none. Not all of the objects are dangerous, though. You can find several thousand objects that turn out to be really far away for every one object that's relatively close to Earth, Ashley said. Ashley's project is unique because it combines strong educational outreach with strong science, said Bruce Betts of the Planetary Society. Two years ago, software missed a discovery that Ashley's technique noticed. It turned out that SQ222 was the closest asteroid ever to whiz by Earth without striking the atmosphere. "No detection software for moving objects is perfect, and putting a pair of human eyes on it will occasionally find something we missed," said Edward Bowell, a senior astronomer at Lowell Observatory and director of the observatory's Near-Earth Object Search program. Still, it'd be impossible to rely solely on human eyes, Bowell said; there's far too much data to process. Ashley's project isn't widespread yet, and since he's in the midst of earning his Ph.D. from Arizona State University, he doesn't think he'll have the time to expand the program much more for now. There's a learning curve behind teaching students how to use the software, Ashley said. It has to be done in an educational environment, and it can't just be done over the Internet like a video game. |
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