Daily Minor Planet

Asteroids, also known as minor planets, are the rocky remnants of the material that formed the planets of our solar system. The Daily Minor Planet Project needs your help to look through images collected by the Catalina Sky Survey for main-belt and near-Earth asteroids that slip through its detection system.

Our software has systematically identified candidates for you to validate. Most of these candidates are noise or other objects masquerading as asteroids. We need you to spot the real asteroids among the data hiccups. Maybe you will discover a whole new world!

Go to Project Website

AGES

18 and up

DIVISION

Solar System

WHERE

Online

LAUNCHED

2023

What you'll do

  • Examine sequences of images showing the same patch of sky on different dates. Asteroid candidates have been circled in these images.
  • Click “yes” or “no” to indicate whether what you see really is an asteroid.
  • Interact with other volunteers on the project’s TALK bulletin board.

Requirements

  • Time to get started: 5-15 minutes to complete the tutorial.
  • Equipment: Web-connected device.
  • Knowledge: None. An in-project tutorial provides all instruction needed.

Get started!

  1. Visit the project website. 
  2. Click on yellow “Validate” button or the “Classify” tab in the upper right.
  3. Complete the project tutorial.
  4. Start looking at images of stars and possible moving objects!

Learn More

You’ll find more background information about asteroids and planetary defense on the project’s Research page. You can also visit the Catalina Sky Survey website to learn more about the ongoing survey that collects the images. 

You can follow the Catalina Sky Survey on Facebook and X!

Do you prefer to work with a group? You might be interested in joining the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC). The IASC works with school groups and other community groups, sending them their own packets of data to search for asteroids moving across the background of stars. 

On a black field sprinkled with bright white spots of varying sizes from tiny to small blobs, we see a thin green circle. In the center of the circle is a medium-sized bright white spot.
Four images taken from the project data, showing an asteroid (circled in green) moving through a field of stars. 
Credit: Daily Minor Planet website
On a black circle with a blue outline the words Catalina Sky Survey appear in white capital letters. Beneath the words we see a rocky, irregular grey asteroid, lit from below.
Around a yellow circle a black field are the labeled, circular sequentially larger orbits of Earth in white, Mars in grey, the Main Belt Asteroids, which appears as a wide green band, and Jupiter in grey. Intersecting with thesee circular orbits are three oblong orbits. The smallest is in red and labeled Atens. Its closest approach to the Sun is well within Earth’s orbit, while at its most distant it is outside of the Earths’. The next largest is blue and labeled Apollos. At its closest approach to the sun this orbit is also inside of Earth’s. At its most distant it is at the outer edge of the Main Belt Asteroids band. Each of these orbits crosses Earth’s twice. The third oblong orbit is yellow and labeled Amors. It does not intersect with Earth’s orbit, but approaches Earth on its closest pass to the Sun. At its most distant, it reaches the middle of the main asteroid belt.
The asteroid belt lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Most asteroids within this belt orbit the sun harmlessly, never crossing the paths of the major planets. However, some asteroids have orbits that can bring them into close proximity to Earth. We call these latter objects near-Earth asteroids, or NEAs. NEAs are important to find and track! This diagram shows the three primary NEA orbital families: the Amors, the Apollos, and the Atens.
Credit: G.J. Leonard, Catalina Sky Survey

Get to know the people of the Daily Minor Planet!

Portrait photo of a smiling man in glasses and a plaid shirt.

Carson Fuls

Director

Read Bio
On a black circle with a blue outline the words Catalina Sky Survey appear in white capital letters. Beneath the words we see a rocky, irregular grey asteroid, lit from below.

Joshua Hogan

Survey Operations Specialist

Read Bio
Portrait photo of a man with a short dark beard and mustache

Kacper Wierzchos

Senior Survey Operations Specialist

Read Bio