NASA Wants Volunteer Astronomers

Small Asteroids That Approach
Close to Earth Remain Untracked

Amateur astronomers with their own telescopes and scientists from fields other than astronomy are being asked by NASA to help track asteroids that come close to the Earth.

Deborah Zabarenko of Reuters reports from Washington that NASA has already identified 95 percent of the large near-earth objects that have a diameter of a kilometer or more (.62 miles); these are the rocks big enough to do what the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago accomplished.

But now NASA wants individuals, government agencies, international partners and academics to "find all asteroid threats to human populations and know what to do about them." There is a website available at:
  http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/initiative/grand_challenge.html .

The Reuters article notes that even smaller rocks that don’t hit the Earth can be dangerous. In February of this year, one that was about 19 yards in diameter exploded above Russia, damaging buildings, shattering glass and injuring about 1,200 people.
　
The initiative aims to detect all NEOs of 33 yards or larger, [one expert] said.
Here’s what the Reuters article says about these near-Earth objects NEOs):

"Estimates suggest less than 10 percent of NEOs smaller than 328 yards across have been detected, and less than 1 percent of objects smaller than 109 yards in diameter have been detected, NASA said in a statement."
The entire Reuters article is online at:

http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-wants-backyard-astronomers-help-track-asteroids-221534576.html