I woke up this morning thinking it was just another Sunday, but it turned out I was wrong. Today was project anniversary that I was about to miss the anniversary of Ice Investigators.
CosmoQuest community member RafaelG pointed out on the forums that today was Ice Investigators turned 100 days old today.
This followup project to Ice Hunters invited you to explore images from the Subaru Telescope and CFHTelescope. Between these two projects, you have discovered tens of Kuiper Belt Objects, and many more variable stars and asteroids (although the zippy asteroids have so far not allowed us to calculate their orbits.
The team of observers at Southwest Research Institute and the CADC – Marc, JJ, and Dave – have been working hard to collect data and to work on submitting things to the Minor Planet Center. Back in March, over 20 objects were submitted with the names of Ice Hunters listed with the orbital parameters. So far, only 2 of the objects have made it from submission to published (and we don’t know why this is such a slow process), but still it’s all pretty exciting. Here are links to the two published objects, and as the rest trickle out we’ll work to share that information as well.
Right now it is observing season again, and folks are out working hard to get more data for you to search. As our region of the sky sinks back below the horizon in the fall, we’ll work on going through and confirming current markings, and continuing to submit new objects and to check orbits for that one perfect target for New Horizons.
Thanks for helping us log the icy outer solar system!
Join the Crew!
Escape Velocity Space News
Congratulations on 100 days anniversary of Ice Investigators. I missed the transition from Ice Hunters to Ice Investigators,( some people have been very busy programming while I’ve been away!), love the new layout and the opportunity for contact/forum/comment and to get involved. Great stuff. So 100 days in to Ice Investigators….1114 days until New Horizons closest approach to Pluto, (a period that will no doubt elevate Pluto from a minor planet status, to a major planet status again) for a few weeks anyway and for a few of us. Such a great time to be alive! Congratulations!