The Daily Minor Planet

How often is new data uploaded?

Every day! That's where our project’s name comes from. However, we may have nights with poor weather, and we also don't observer for 2-3 days around the full moon. This should allow some time to catch up on the previous days’ subjects.

About how often should I find real asteroids?

We believe that about 1% of the subjects (the short videos we ask you to examine) that we share on this site will contain real, previously unidentified asteroids. If you find yourself saying "Yes" frequently, then we suggest that you review our tutorial and field guide again. Some asteroids are hard to confirm as they are dim. If you are uncertain, we would rather you select "No" and move on. Since each NEO candidate this project identifies needs to undergo expert review up to requiring telescope time to confirm, and the majority of the subjects uploaded are possible NEOs, we would like to keep the false positive rate as low as possible.

What happens when an asteroid is found?

Once an unknown asteroid has had enough votes and a high enough percentage of "Yes" votes, two possible things can happen to it. If it's orbit is more like a main-belt asteroid, it is measured and automatically submitted to the Minor Planet Center. Any volunteer who identified the asteroid by selecting "Yes" will be included in this submission as a measurer. If the asteroid's orbit is more like a near-Earth asteroid, it will be parked for review by one of our staff at the Catalina Sky Survey. The asteroid may require more images taken of it to confirm that it is real, or if it is a very clear detection of an asteroid, it will be submitted to the Minor Planet Center with it's list of measurers.

Do some of the subjects contain known asteroids?

Yes. We include some of the known objects we find during each night. This gives everyone a chance to train their eye on what real asteroids look like in the data.

How can I tell if the asteroid I just saw has been previously identified or is a new discovery?

Once you make your decision on whether an asteroid is real or not, you can select 'Done & Talk' to be taken to the discussion page for that short clip. Then click on the small 'i' at the bottom right of the image. Known asteroids will have the keyword "known_obj" or "obs_conf_neo". For some objects, they may also include the asteroid’s name under the sDesig label.

How can I be credited for any objects I find?

MAKE SURE YOU FILL OUT THE FORM HERE
And review the MPC guidelines for name formatting HERE

Do I have to enter an email address to fill out the credit form?

No. An email address is only required if you want to save your progress on the form which shouldn't be necessary since it is only two questions.

How can I check if I have been credited as a measurer?

If you would like to see where you are credited as a measurer, you can check the Minor Planet Circulars (MPC) archive here: https://cgi.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/MPCArchive_TBL.html. Measurers for Already Known main-belt asteroids will be listed in the publications in the first column. Measurers for Unknown objects will be published when the object is linked to other observation of the object. This may take some time, so don't worry if you cannot find your name listed in the publications linked above quite yet.

If/when we find a Near-Earth Object those asteroids get their own publication, called a Minor Planet Electronic Circular (MPEC), which we'll include a link to when it is published. This is usually published a few days after a discovery is confirmed. We also have information on the projects overall discovery count and links to submitted objects on our RESULTS page.

Can I have access to the raw data these subjects come from?

Our data is available to the public at the Small Bodies Node of the Planetary Data System HERE