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As kids, many of us had dreams about exploring space. What cooler job could there be than a space-conquering astronaut? Now, with a new joint project between IceHunters and NASA’s New Horizons mission team, you can help explore space — from the comfort of your own home.
Apparently, NASA needs help identifying objects in space photos. There are literally millions of images that need to be scanned, which will greatly help the efficiency of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft when it flies past Pluto in 2015.
What NASA wants �you to look for are called “Kuiper Belt Objects”, or KBO’s. In the images you’d be scanning, these objects appear as tiny all-white spherical blobs. NASA is hoping that some of these KBO’s could have the right orbit to be featured in the New Horizons flyby.
The exciting thing about KBO’s is that they could help reveal more about hidden features of our universe. Since the New Horizons mission is our most comprehensive mission to Pluto thus far, the potential for new discoveries has scientists and astronomers extremely excited.
