Daily Minor Planet Project Expands Operations with Bok Telescope Data

The Daily Minor Planet citizen science project has significantly expanded its operations. The project now processes images from the Bok 2.3-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. This new data source is a crucial addition to the existing nightly data from the Catalina Sky Survey's Mt. Lemmon telescope in Arizona.

Introducing the Bok Telescope

Operated by the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory, the Bok telescope plays a vital role in surveying new near-Earth objects (NEOs). These are asteroids specifically identified as crossing Earth's orbit, making their detection critical.

A Deeper View for Citizen Scientists

Data from the Bok telescope provides a significantly deeper view, identifying objects approximately two to three times fainter than those detected by the Mt. Lemmon telescope. While software often struggles with the subtle nuances of such faint objects, human pattern recognition capabilities prove remarkably effective.

Human pattern recognition capabilities are highly effective in processing this type of faint object data, greatly enhancing the value of citizen contributions.

Focused on the Ecliptic

A significant characteristic of this new data is its concentrated focus on the ecliptic. This region of the sky is where asteroids and comets predominantly travel, making it a prime area for discoveries.

The project team anticipates that this deeper, ecliptic-focused coverage will substantially increase the number of main-belt asteroids recovered and confirmed, and generate a wealth of new near-Earth asteroid candidates.

About the Daily Minor Planet

New subject sets originating from the Bok telescope will soon be integrated into the Daily Minor Planet project. The Daily Minor Planet is a dynamic citizen science initiative, regularly updated and hosted by Zooniverse. It utilizes data from the Catalina Sky Survey and now, critically, the Bok telescope.

Participation is open to anyone with a laptop or smartphone, offering a unique opportunity to contribute to astronomical discovery.