[meteorite-list] NASA Teams with Web Tech Company Slooh to Bring Universe to Everyone and Help Protect Earth Too

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 22 May 2014 10:07:09 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201405221707.s4MH7Aom020173_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

May 22, 2014
     
NASA Teams with Web Tech Company Slooh to Bring Universe to Everyone and
Help Protect Earth Too

As part of the agency's Asteroid Grand Challenge, NASA is partnering with
private internet technology company Slooh to engage citizen scientists in the
effort to track and characterize near-Earth asteroids (NEOs) that are
potentially hazardous to human populations.

Slooh's global network of web-connected telescopes will be available for
use by amateur astronomers for monitoring and characterizing NEOs. Citizen
scientists without access to professional equipment will have the opportunity
to be a part of the global challenge to find hazardous NEOs. NASA also is
partnering with Slooh on live astronomy events.

"We are excited by the opportunity to tap into Slooh's network of amateur
astronomers, who are already producing scientific papers with their work,"
said Jason Kessler, program executive for the Asteroid Grand Challenge. "We
look forward to expanding the meaningful science the Slooh network can
provide in support of the grand challenge."

The live astronomy events on which NASA and Slooh will partner include the
LINEAR comet meteor shower, occurring Friday, May 23, and Saturday, May 24.
Slooh will provide live feeds of the event from 6 p.m. EDT Friday to 3 a.m.
Saturday on the company's website and the UStream feed for NASA's Marshall
Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, at:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc

Live astronomy events through the NASA and Slooh platforms increase the
number of people who can watch and actively participate in science as it
happens. Future events will include NASA experts offering commentary on live
events. Slooh plans to provide NASA with relevant observation data from these
events, which may be used for grand challenge citizen science efforts.

"This partnership is a great validation of our approach to engage the
public in the exploration of space,' says Michael Paolucci, founder and CEO
of Slooh. "NASA understands the importance of citizen science and knows a
good way to get amateur astronomers involved is to offer them ways to do
productive astronomy. Slooh does that by giving them remote access to great
telescopes situated at leading observatory sites around the world."

The Asteroid Grand Challenge is built on such collaborative efforts. The
partnership with Slooh augments grand challenge partnerships with SpaceGambit
and Planetary Resources Inc., and extending the search from existing data to
direct observation through telescopes.

Through NASA's asteroid initiative, the agency seeks to enhance its ongoing
work in the identification and characterization of near-Earth objects for
further scientific investigation. This work includes locating potentially
hazardous asteroids and identifying those viable for redirection to a stable
lunar orbit for future exploration by astronauts. The Asteroid Grand
Challenge, one part of the asteroid initiative, expands the agency's efforts
beyond traditional boundaries and encourages partnerships and collaboration
with a variety of organizations.

For more information on NASA's asteroid initiative, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative

-end-

Sonja Alexander/Sarah Ramsey
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1761/1694
sonja.r.alexander at nasa.gov / sarah.ramsey at nasa.gov

Janet Anderson
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
janet.l.anderson at nasa.gov
Received on Thu 22 May 2014 01:07:09 PM PDT