"Volunteer Astronomers Uncover 15 Rare Active Asteroids"

Volunteers from NASA's "Active Asteroids" Citizen Science project have discovered 15 rare active asteroids, challenging conventional wisdom about the solar system. These extraordinary asteroids exhibit comet-like tails or envelopes of gas and dust, and their discovery was made possible by more than 8,000 volunteers who combed through 430,000 images from the Dark Energy Camera on the Victor M. Blanco telescope in Chile. The findings, now published in The Astronomical Journal, provide valuable insights into the formation and evolution of the solar system and may have implications for future space exploration.