Public asked to help label features on Pluto

When NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flies by Pluto in July, people of the public will be able to name different features of the planet that they see in the images portrayed by the craft.  Since this will be the first time Pluto has ever been mapped, the New Horizons team is asking for your help in coming up with names.  The public will be able to suggest names for certain features by going to http://ourpluto.seti.org and everyone will vote to decide which names are the best.  “Pluto belongs to everyone,” said Mark Showalter from the SETI Institute. “So we want everyone to be involved in making the map of this distant world.”  Currently, the images we have of Pluto are distant and lack much detail, but after the flyby, we will learn much more about the dwarf planet and its largest moon, Charon.  “The difference is that last time we only needed two names, whereas now we could need more than a hundred,” Showalter notes. “We are eager to gather recommendations from people all over the world.” The website also includes an extremely simple ballot to allow young children to participate.

Citation: http://www.astronomy.com/news/2015/03/public-asked-to-help-name-features-on-pluto

Application for asteroid hunting

A new computer application has been produced to aid astronomers in discovering more asteroids in our solar system.  This software enables any ordinary astronomy enthusiasts to discover asteroids, which has greatly helped NASA with their quest to detect more of them.  NASA created this incredible, new application using an algorithm that scans photos from telescopes, detecting any possible asteroids in the images.  This algorithm came from the Asteroid Data Hunter contest, which NASA launched in March of 2014.  In this contest, participants created their own algorithms to best detect asteroids in images that they took and in the end, the best parts of the algorithms were pooled to create the application. “The Asteroid Grand Challenge is seeking non-traditional partnerships to bring the citizen science and space enthusiast community into NASA’s work,” said Jason Kessler of NASA’s Asteroid Grand Challenge. “The Asteroid Data Hunter challenge has been successful beyond our hopes, creating something that makes a tangible difference to asteroid hunting astronomers and highlights the possibility for more people to play a role in protecting our planet.”  Instead of searching for asteroids by hand using the old method, now, the application quickly scans multiple photos, determining whether any possible asteroids are present in the images.  The best part about the application- it’s free!    

Citation: http://www.astronomy.com/news/2015/03/new-desktop-application-has-potential-to-increase-asteroid-detection

Citation 2: http://www.topcoder.com/asteroids/asteroiddatahunter/

Mining the moon is a possibility

Mining the moon has become a serious possibility due to the fact that the moon contains a surplus of water ice at its north and south poles.  It is projected that the moon has approximately 1.6 billion tonnes of water ice and "It is this, more than anything else," Cornfield writes, "that has kindled interest in mining the Moon, for where there is ice, there is fuel."  Shackleton Energy Company plans to utilize the moon’s water ice by extracting it and turning it into rocket fuel.  Then, they would be able to create fuel stations in earth’s orbit.  They would essentially be creating a gas station in space.  However, water ice isn’t the only thing the moon has to offer.  The moon also contains rare-earth elements and China has taken advantage of these elements since they touched down on the moon in December of 2013.  "All interested parties agree that the Moon -- one step from Earth -- is the essential first toehold for humankind's diaspora to the stars," Corfield concludes.

Citation: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150202114634.htm

NASA Spacecaft "Dawn" captures best-ever images of dwarf planet

Recently, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has captured the highest quality pictures ever seen of the dwarf planet know as Ceres.  On January 25, NASA received these images from the spacecraft, which took them from 147,000 miles away.  The images were of such high resolution due to the fact that the spacecraft has traveled through the solar system to Ceres.  However, this is just the start.  In the beginning of March, Dawn will enter into orbit around Ceres, enabling NASA to visualize the dwarf planet’s composition.  "We are already seeing areas and details on Ceres popping out that had not been seen before. For instance, there are several dark features in the southern hemisphere that might be craters within a region that is darker overall," said Carol Raymond from JPL. "Data from this mission will revolutionize our understanding of this unique body. Ceres is showing us tantalizing features that are whetting our appetite for the detailed exploration to come."  Although we know a miniscule amount of information about our solar system, "With the help of Dawn and other missions, we are continually adding to our understanding of how the solar system began and how the planets were formed," said Chris Russell from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Citation: http://www.astronomy.com/news/2015/01/dawn-spacecraft-captures-best-ever-view-of-dwarf-planet