NASA is asking for programmers' help in identifying asteroids that could threaten our planet, as part of the Asteroid Data Hunter competition.
Asteroid Data Hunter is offering $35,000 to developers who can develop algorithms that can identify asteroids in images from ground-based telescopes. The winning solution should increase the rate of asteroid detection and minimize the number of false positives.
Also, the "asteroid hunting code" in question should be able to ignore "imperfections" in the data and be able to "run" on all computer systems.
"Protecting the planet from the threat of asteroid impacts means we first need to know where they are," said Jen Gustetic, head of the program, according to a BBC report.
"By expanding the search for asteroids, we are harnessing the potential of innovators, creators, and citizen scientists everywhere to address this global challenge.".
Currently, it is estimated that only 1% of objects orbiting the sun are being tracked, according to the company Planetary Resources, which is collaborating with NASA on the competition.
Speaking at the SXSW conference on Tuesday, Gustetic and Jason Kessler explained how the US space agency is using a combination of crowdsourcing and prizes to boost its efforts in the field of asteroid detection.
During the presentation, the example of dinosaurs was used, which became extinct due to the impact of an asteroid in the Gulf of Mexico 66 million years ago, in the fifth case of "mass extinction" on our planet.
"A mass extinction is something that eliminates 75% of species on the planet within two million years," he noted, pointing out that compared to dinosaurs, the human species has not been the "dominant" of the planet for a very long time.
As the Guardian reports, the question, according to Gustetich, is whether we are smart enough as a species to avoid the fate of the dinosaurs.
Asteroid Data Hunter begins on March 17th and will run until mid-August.
Source: naftemporiki.gr
