Volunteers working with the Active Asteroids Project have helped identify 15 new asteroids with tails barreling through space.
Despite popular belief, not all space rocks with tails are comets. In fact, asteroids with tails are by far some of the rarest asteroids that we know of, and NASA volunteers just helped find 15 new ones. The 15 new asteroids are part of a rare lineup of asteroids that NASA calls “active” asteroids due to their “activity” – the comet-like tails of gas and dust that follow them. The asteroids were discovered with the help of more than 8,000 volunteers.
The project launched in August of 2021 and has over 6,000 volunteers, according to its website. A comet or asteroid enters the Earth's atmosphere in an illustration. Thus far, the project has resulted in six publications detailing their discoveries, and the Active Asteroids Project says that more publications are in the works. This is, of course, only one highlight of the important part that citizen scientists play in helping unravel the mysteries of our universe.
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