* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    This Haunting ‘60s Country Song Is Even More Tragic Than You Remember – Yahoo

    This Haunting ’60s Country Song Is Even More Heartbreaking Than You Remember

    Arts/Entertainment: ‘Wait Until Dark’ brings spooky season center stage – Times Herald Online

    Wait Until Dark’ Delivers Chilling Thrills Perfect for the Spooky Season

    Bluesman James Montgomery Will Perform In Falmouth – CapeNews.net

    Blues Legend James Montgomery Ready to Ignite the Stage in Falmouth

    Mexican singer Pedro Fernández to make Ave Fénix tour stop in Stockton. Tickets, schedule – Yahoo

    Mexican Singer Pedro Fernández Brings the Ave Fénix Tour to Stockton – Don’t Miss It!

    Flutter Entertainment’s SWOT Analysis: Uncovering the Growth Potential Amid Challenges

    Dylan Efron Shares Sweet ‘DWTS’ Rehearsal Photos Featuring His Little Sister Olivia – yahoo.com

    Dylan Efron’s Heartwarming ‘DWTS’ Rehearsal Moments with Little Sister Olivia

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Erie Canal’s 200th anniversary: How a technological marvel for trade changed the environment forever – The Conversation

    Erie Canal’s 200th Anniversary: How a Trade Marvel Transformed the Environment Forever

    Day 5 of Gains Streak for Solidion Technology Stock with 475% Return (vs. -20% YTD) [10/14/2025] – Trefis

    Solidion Technology Stock Rockets for 5th Consecutive Day, Soaring an Astonishing 475% Year-to-Date

    Tracking DNA and RNA Together To Unlock Disease Insights – Technology Networks

    Unlocking Disease Insights by Tracking DNA and RNA Together

    The future of battery technology – Engineer Live

    Revolutionizing Energy: Exploring the Future of Battery Technology

    How Can Boosting Your Travel Experience with Less Technology Lead to a More Relaxing Vacation? All You Need to Know About This Latest Trend – Travel And Tour World

    How Can Boosting Your Travel Experience with Less Technology Lead to a More Relaxing Vacation? All You Need to Know About This Latest Trend – Travel And Tour World

    Davenport CornCon Cybersecurity Conference helps students explore technology, AI use – KWQC

    Davenport CornCon Cybersecurity Conference Ignites Student Passion for Technology and AI Innovations

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    This Haunting ‘60s Country Song Is Even More Tragic Than You Remember – Yahoo

    This Haunting ’60s Country Song Is Even More Heartbreaking Than You Remember

    Arts/Entertainment: ‘Wait Until Dark’ brings spooky season center stage – Times Herald Online

    Wait Until Dark’ Delivers Chilling Thrills Perfect for the Spooky Season

    Bluesman James Montgomery Will Perform In Falmouth – CapeNews.net

    Blues Legend James Montgomery Ready to Ignite the Stage in Falmouth

    Mexican singer Pedro Fernández to make Ave Fénix tour stop in Stockton. Tickets, schedule – Yahoo

    Mexican Singer Pedro Fernández Brings the Ave Fénix Tour to Stockton – Don’t Miss It!

    Flutter Entertainment’s SWOT Analysis: Uncovering the Growth Potential Amid Challenges

    Dylan Efron Shares Sweet ‘DWTS’ Rehearsal Photos Featuring His Little Sister Olivia – yahoo.com

    Dylan Efron’s Heartwarming ‘DWTS’ Rehearsal Moments with Little Sister Olivia

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Erie Canal’s 200th anniversary: How a technological marvel for trade changed the environment forever – The Conversation

    Erie Canal’s 200th Anniversary: How a Trade Marvel Transformed the Environment Forever

    Day 5 of Gains Streak for Solidion Technology Stock with 475% Return (vs. -20% YTD) [10/14/2025] – Trefis

    Solidion Technology Stock Rockets for 5th Consecutive Day, Soaring an Astonishing 475% Year-to-Date

    Tracking DNA and RNA Together To Unlock Disease Insights – Technology Networks

    Unlocking Disease Insights by Tracking DNA and RNA Together

    The future of battery technology – Engineer Live

    Revolutionizing Energy: Exploring the Future of Battery Technology

    How Can Boosting Your Travel Experience with Less Technology Lead to a More Relaxing Vacation? All You Need to Know About This Latest Trend – Travel And Tour World

    How Can Boosting Your Travel Experience with Less Technology Lead to a More Relaxing Vacation? All You Need to Know About This Latest Trend – Travel And Tour World

    Davenport CornCon Cybersecurity Conference helps students explore technology, AI use – KWQC

    Davenport CornCon Cybersecurity Conference Ignites Student Passion for Technology and AI Innovations

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

Stellar Sleuths: Citizen Scientists and AI Uncover Hidden Asteroids With Hubble

June 23, 2024
in Science
Stellar Sleuths: Citizen Scientists and AI Uncover Hidden Asteroids With Hubble
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Asteroid Belt Art Concept

Astronomers and citizen scientists have discovered over 1,000 previously unknown asteroids using archival Hubble images, offering new insights into the asteroid belt’s evolution and supporting theories of collisional fragmentation. Credit: SciTechDaily.com

Deep-Sky Exposure Yields Telltale Evidence for Asteroid Moving Across the Celestial Background

Over 4 billion years ago, the eight major planets around our Sun formed by sweeping up debris from a vast disk of dust and gas surrounding the Sun. This is common to the planet birthing process, and the Hubble Space Telescope was the first to optically see similar disks surrounding newborn stars, providing a peek into the solar system’s formative years. Now, 4 billon years later, the planet construction yard is still cluttered with leftover debris.

Most of this ancient space rubble, called asteroids, can be found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter within the main asteroid belt. The census of the asteroid population is ongoing. Hubble’s unique capabilities allow it to be used as an “asteroid hunter” for this task. Asteroids appear as curved trails in Hubble images. The trails are due to parallax because Hubble is not stationary, but orbiting Earth. This gives the illusion that the faint asteroids are swimming along curved trajectories.

The Hubble archives, spanning many years, are loaded with images that capture wayward asteroids trekking along their orbits. They were not the intended targets, but instead photobombed background stars and galaxies. Finding these asteroids is sort of a game of Where’s Waldo. It was recognized this would be a Herculean effort for any group of astronomers, so the researchers relied on a small army of volunteer citizen scientists to peruse the gaggle of Hubble photos. What they found was applied to machine learning to dig out even more asteroids. The project identified 1,701 asteroid trails. Most of the asteroids are too small to have been previously detected without Hubble’s sharp resolution and ultraviolet-light sensitivity.

Wayward Asteroid Photobombs Hubble Snapshot of Galaxy UGC 12158

This Hubble Space Telescope image of the barred spiral galaxy UGC 12158 looks like someone took a white marking pen to it. In reality it is a combination of time exposures of a foreground asteroid moving through Hubble’s field-of-view, photobombing the observation of the galaxy. Several exposures of the galaxy were taken, what is evidence in the dashed pattern. The asteroid appears as a curved trail due to parallax: because Hubble is not stationary, but orbiting Earth, and this gives the illusion that the faint asteroid is swimming along a curved trajectory. The uncharted asteroid is in inside the asteroid belt in our solar system, and hence is 10 trillion times closer to Hubble than the background galaxy. Rather than a nuisance, this type of data are useful to astronomers for doing a census of the asteroid population in our solar system. Credit: NASA, ESA, Pablo García Martín (UAM); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI); Acknowledgment: Alex Filippenko (UC Berkeley)

Hubble Space Telescope Goes Hunting for Small Main Belt Asteroids

Like boulders, rocks, and pebbles scattered across a landscape, asteroids come in a wide range of sizes. Cataloging asteroids in space is tricky because they are faint and they don’t stop to be photographed as they zip along their orbits around the Sun.

Astronomers recently used a trove of archived images taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to visually snag a largely unseen population of smaller asteroids in their tracks. The treasure hunt required perusing 37,000 Hubble images spanning 19 years. The payoff was finding 1,701 asteroid trails, with 1,031 of the asteroids previously uncatalogued. About 400 of these uncatalogued asteroids are below 1 kilometer in size.

Size Distribution for Unknown Asteroids in Hubble Asteroid Hunter Survey

This graph is based on Hubble Space Telescope archival data that was used to identify a largely unseen population of very small asteroids in their tracks. The asteroids were not the intended targets, but instead photobombed background stars and galaxies in Hubble images. The comprehensive treasure hunt required perusing 37,000 Hubble images spanning 19 years. This was accomplished by using “citizen science” volunteers and artificial intelligence algorithms. The payoff was finding 1,701 asteroid trails of previously undetected asteroids. Credit: Pablo García Martín (UAM), Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI)

Citizen Science and Machine Learning in Astronomy

Volunteers from around the world known as “citizen scientists” contributed to the identification of this asteroid bounty. Professional scientists combined the volunteers’ efforts with machine learning algorithm to identify the asteroids. It represents a new approach to finding asteroids in astronomical archives spanning decades, which may be effectively applied to other datasets, say the researchers.

“We are getting deeper into seeing the smaller population of main belt asteroids. We were surprised with seeing such a large number of candidate objects,” said lead author Pablo García Martín of the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. “There was some hint of this population existing, but now we are confirming it with a random asteroid population sample obtained using the whole Hubble archive. This is important for providing insights into the evolutionary models of our solar system.”

Insights Into Asteroid Evolution

The large, random sample offers new insights into the formation and evolution of the asteroid belt. Finding a lot of small asteroids favors the idea that they are fragments of larger asteroids that have collided and broken apart, like smashed pottery. This is a grinding-down process spanning billions of years.

An alternative theory for the existence of smaller fragments is that they formed that way billions of years ago. But there is no conceivable mechanism that would keep them from snowballing up to larger sizes as they agglomerated dust from the planet-forming circumstellar disk around our Sun. “Collisions would have a certain signature that we can use to test the current main belt population,” said co-author Bruno Merín of the European Space Astronomy Centre, in Madrid, Spain.

Asteroid Passes in Front of UGC 12158 (Compass Image)

This Hubble Space Telescope image of the barred spiral galaxy UGC 12158 looks like someone took a white marking pen to it. In reality it is a combination of time exposures of a foreground asteroid moving through Hubble’s field-of-view, photobombing the observation of the galaxy. Several exposures of the galaxy were taken, what is evidence in the dashed pattern.
The asteroid appears as a curved trail due to parallax: Hubble is not stationary, but orbiting Earth, and this gives the illusion that the faint asteroid is swimming along a curved trajectory. The uncharted asteroid is inside the asteroid belt in our solar system, and hence is 10 trillion times closer to Hubble than the background galaxy.
Rather than a nuisance, this type of data are useful to astronomers for doing a census of the asteroid population in our solar system. Credit: NASA, ESA, Pablo García Martín (UAM)

Amateur Astronomers Teach AI to Find Asteroids

Because of Hubble’s fast orbit around the Earth, it can capture wandering asteroids through their telltale trails in the Hubble exposures. As viewed from an Earth-based telescope, an asteroid leaves a streak across the picture. Asteroids “photobomb” Hubble exposures by appearing as unmistakable, curved trails in Hubble photographs.

As Hubble moves around the Earth, it changes its point of view while observing an asteroid, which also moves along its own orbit. By knowing the position of Hubble during the observation and measuring the curvature of the streaks, scientists can determine the distances to the asteroids and estimate the shapes of their orbits.

The asteroids snagged mostly dwell in the main belt, which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Their brightness is measured by Hubble’s sensitive cameras. And comparing their brightness to their distance allows for a size estimate. The faintest asteroids in the survey are roughly one forty-millionth the brightness of the faintest star that can be seen by the human eye.

“Asteroid positions change with time, and therefore you cannot find them just by entering coordinates, because at different times, they might not be there,” said Merín. “As astronomers we don’t have time to go looking through all the asteroid images. So we got the idea to collaborate with over 10,000 citizen-science volunteers to peruse the huge Hubble archives.”

Citizen Science and Future Research

In 2019 an international group of astronomers launched the Hubble Asteroid Hunter, a citizen-science project to identify asteroids in archival Hubble data. The initiative was developed by researchers and engineers at the European Science and Technology Centre (ESTEC) and the European Space Astronomy Centre’s science data center (ESDC), in collaboration with the Zooniverse platform, the world’s largest and most popular citizen-science platform, and Google.

A total of 11,482 citizen-science volunteers, who provided nearly 2 million identifications, were then given a training set for an automated algorithm to identify asteroids based on artificial intelligence. This pioneering approach may be effectively applied to other datasets.

The project will next explore the streaks of previously unknown asteroids to characterize their orbits and study their properties, such as rotation periods. Because most of these asteroid streaks were captured by Hubble many years ago, it is not possible to follow them up now to determine their orbits.

The findings are published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Reference: “Hubble Asteroid Hunter – III. Physical properties of newly found asteroids” by Pablo García-Martín, Sandor Kruk, Marcel Popescu, Bruno Merín, Karl R. Stapelfeldt, Robin W. Evans, Benoit Carry and Ross Thomson, 15 March 2024, Astronomy & Astrophysics.
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202346771

To learn how you can participate in citizen science projects related to NASA, visit https://science.nasa.gov/citizen-science/. Participation is open to everyone around the world, not limited to U.S. citizens or residents.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : SciTechDaily – https://scitechdaily.com/stellar-sleuths-citizen-scientists-and-ai-uncover-hidden-asteroids-with-hubble/

Tags: sciencesleuthsStellar
Previous Post

Terahertz Waves Supercharged: A Breakthrough With Magnetic Materials

Next Post

Grab a grade-A refurbished Apple iPad 6th Gen & accessories bundle for only $159.99

This Haunting ‘60s Country Song Is Even More Tragic Than You Remember – Yahoo

This Haunting ’60s Country Song Is Even More Heartbreaking Than You Remember

October 16, 2025
Iron County nonprofit connects public to health experts – Upper Michigan’s Source

Iron County Nonprofit Bridges the Gap Between Community and Health Experts

October 16, 2025
Hear arguments in Supreme Court case that could undercut Voting Rights Act – CNN

Supreme Court Hears Crucial Arguments That Could Weaken the Voting Rights Act

October 16, 2025
Using nature to help tackle mental health issues – Inside Ecology

Using nature to help tackle mental health issues – Inside Ecology

October 15, 2025
Get Inspired at the Bay Area Science Festival on Saturday, October 25 – marinmommies.com

Get Inspired at the Bay Area Science Festival on Saturday, October 25 – marinmommies.com

October 15, 2025
Scientists Found a Chemical That Could Help Regrow Your Hair. It Might Be In Your Pantry. – Popular Mechanics

This Common Pantry Ingredient Could Be the Key to Regrowing Your Hair

October 15, 2025
Face your fears in 4k: October State Theatre film lineup – The Daily Collegian

Conquer Your Fears in Stunning 4K: October Film Lineup at the State Theatre

October 15, 2025
Erie Canal’s 200th anniversary: How a technological marvel for trade changed the environment forever – The Conversation

Erie Canal’s 200th Anniversary: How a Trade Marvel Transformed the Environment Forever

October 15, 2025
Sporting KC to participate in 2026 Coachella Valley Invitational – Sporting Kansas City

Sporting KC Prepares for an Exciting Run at the 2026 Coachella Valley Invitational

October 15, 2025
Madagascar: Gen Z protesters united by an anime pirate flag are challenging governments around the world – NBC News

Madagascar: Gen Z protesters united by an anime pirate flag are challenging governments around the world – NBC News

October 15, 2025

Categories

Archives

October 2025
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Sep    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (869)
  • Economy (891)
  • Entertainment (21,763)
  • General (17,619)
  • Health (9,933)
  • Lifestyle (903)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (891)
  • Politics (901)
  • Science (16,101)
  • Sports (21,390)
  • Technology (15,870)
  • World (873)

Recent News

This Haunting ‘60s Country Song Is Even More Tragic Than You Remember – Yahoo

This Haunting ’60s Country Song Is Even More Heartbreaking Than You Remember

October 16, 2025
Iron County nonprofit connects public to health experts – Upper Michigan’s Source

Iron County Nonprofit Bridges the Gap Between Community and Health Experts

October 16, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version