Active Asteroids

The Active Asteroids project is designed to help answer two important and outstanding questions in astronomy: where did the water on Earth come from, and where else can we find water in the solar system today? Answering these questions will have important implications for science and engineering. For example, astrobiologists know life seems to need water in order to exist, so to know where to find life in our solar system (and beyond) they need to know where water can be found! These places are known as "volatile reservoirs" because they hold water or other volatiles such as dry ice. Characterizing the solar system volatile distribution will help geologists and planetary scientists settle the ongoing debate about how much of Earth's water was delivered after our planet was born. And knowing where volatiles are found will inform engineers about potential fuel sources for space travel. Recently it has come to light that asteroids can have ices on their surfaces, and can even have comet-like activity such as tails! These findings indicate asteroids are a volatile reservoir, but fewer than 30 active asteroids have been discovered since 1949. As a result, active asteroids are poorly understood. We need to discover more of these mysterious objects in order to study them as a population. Only then can we shed light on this important clue about our origin in the solar system and where we can find extraterrestrial volatiles today.

For more NASA citizen science projects, go to science.nasa.gov/citizenscience