Two professional astronomers discover comet's orbit using the photos uploaded to the internet amateur observer.
By using the Internet search engine Yahoo, Dustin Lang from Princeton University and David Hogg of the Max-Planck-Institute fur Astronomy in Germany discover unique photo comet 17P/Holmes 2476. Comet Holmes is the brightest object in the solar system and attract astronografer worldwide.
Lang and Hogg enter their photos into Astrometry.net who then recognize the image the sky and measure star pattern. Each photo has the information retrieval. When some photos taken together, the two astronomers can see the path the comet in the sky. Lang and Hogg then compare their orbit data with information from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The result, match.
Currently, astronomers are trying to trace the path of other comets, Comet Hyakatuke. They managed to get about 3,500 photos on Flickr alone Orion Nebula. These findings suggest that for science research can be done by digging the photos on the Internet.
"Could make a survey of the sky with the pictures? answer is 'yes'," said Lang.
source : national geographic
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