NASA volunteers discover fifteen rare active asteroids

NASA's Active Asteroids Citizen Science project volunteers have discovered activity on fifteen asteroids, challenging conventional wisdom about the solar system.

Over 8000 volunteers combed through 430,000 images from the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Victor M. Blanco telescope in Chile to identify these fifteen rare active asteroids.

"For an amateur astronomer like me, it's a dream come true. Congratulations to all the staff and the friends that also check the images", said volunteer Virgilio Gonano from Udine, Italy.

Active asteroids have comet-like tails or envelopes of gas and dust. Studying these enigmatic objects can help scientists better understand the formation and evolution of the solar system, including the origins of water here on Earth. The rare objects may also aid future space exploration because the same ices that cause comet-like tails can power rockets or provide breathable air.

"Finding an active asteroid is a rare event, with estimates placing activity occurrence at a rate of roughly 1 out of 10,000 asteroids. Thus, in order to find signs of activity, we must observe as many asteroids as possible over the span of many years. Moreover, active asteroid tails are often very faint, so the objects usually need to be imaged with large telescopes and long exposure times," reads the project website.