Asteroids, also known as minor planets, are the rocky remnants that formed the terrestrial planets. Although most are rocky bodies, some are metallic, and others are a mixture of metal and rock. Some asteroids are solid, while others are loose rubble piles weakly held together by gravity. Asteroids range in size from about 1-meter across to hundreds of kilometers in diameter. As you might guess, the largest asteroids reflect more light and have all been discovered; smaller asteroids are more numerous and more elusive.
Our project invites you to look through our nightly archival images and scan them for possible new asteroids…. actual new small worlds within our solar system! Our asteroid detection software has systematically identified possible candidates for you to validate. Most of these detections are false positives. We need you to spot the real asteroids among the data hiccups. As a member of the Daily Minor Planet team, you will be sifting through asteroid candidate detections and differentiating false detections from possible real detections. New worlds await your discovery!