A NEW asteroid-tracking tool has been unveiled by researchers from the Asteroid Insitute.

Around 65 million years ago, a deadly asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs.

A new asteroid-tracking tool has been developed by researchers at the Asteroid Institute

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A new asteroid-tracking tool has been developed by researchers at the Asteroid InstituteCredit: B612 Asteroid Institute/University of Washington DiRAC Institute/OpenSpace Project
Some observations captured by the THOR system

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Some observations captured by the THOR systemCredit: B612 Asteroid Institute/University of Washington DiRAC Institute/DECam

In the hopes of preventing another catastrophe of that size, scientists have been extra careful with tracking near-Earth asteroids.

But that task has been daunting as the rocky space objects are pretty hard to spot.

However, two researchers from the B612 Foundation’s Asteroid Institute may have made it a bit easier.

Ed Lu, a former Nasa astronaut, and Danica Remy, president of D612, recently developed a game-changing asteroid-tracking tool.

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Dubbed THOR, the tool comprises an algorithm that compares points of light in the night sky to determine an individual asteroid’s trajectory.

This type of system can be classified as Asteroid Discovery Analysis and Mapping, or ADAM.

The tool has already discovered 104 asteroids using the ADAM system, according to a new statement by Asteroid Institute.

“Unlike current state-of-the-art algorithms, THOR does not require the telescope to observe the sky in a particular pattern for asteroids to be discoverable,” the statement read.

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“Researchers can now begin systematic explorations of large datasets that were previously not usable for discovering asteroids.”

Furthermore, THOR is able to recognize asteroids, and perhaps most notably, calculate their orbits well enough to be identified as asteroids by the Minor Planet Center.  

“What’s magical about THOR is, it realizes that out of all those asteroids, this one in a certain image, and this one in another image four nights later, and this one seven nights later are all the same object and can be put together as the trajectory of a real asteroid,” Lu said.

“This is showing the importance of computation in going forward in astronomy. What’s driving this is that computation is becoming so powerful and so cheap and ubiquitous.”

For THOR’s initial demonstration, researchers sifted through billions of images taken between 2012 and 2019 from telescopes managed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory.

And many images the system will utilize in the future will also be taken by government-funded telescopes.

However, it’s important to note that the tool is not a federally-funded project, but is made possible by donations from private donors and organizations.

Just last Friday, B612 announced it had secured $1.3 million in funding for its ADAM asteroid-spotting platform.

It also received a $1 million gift-matching grant from Tito’s Handmade Vodka.

“Asteroids do hit the world, and at some point, they will,” Lu said.

“For a small amount of money, you can literally change the future of the world.”

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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk

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