In 1930 astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered the dwarf planet Pluto while looking at photographs of the night sky. Pluto was the first object to be found in what’s now known as the Kuiper Belt, a region that’s also full of asteroids. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft intends to visit one or two of them after it flies past Pluto in 2015. But which ones?

That’s where you come in. Because astronomers are ___1___ citizen scientists to ___2___ images that will help them find the outermost icy bodies in Pluto’s neighborhood. The project is described at the Web site

Some of the largest telescopes on Earth have helped produce millions of images of the relevant region of space. By comparing photos taken at different times, scientists can ___3___ objects that appear ___4___, like far-off galaxies, and focus on things that appear to be moving in orbits, like asteroids.

Now, these pictures can be a bit ___5___. So scientists say they could use plenty of eyes to help scan the pics for things that move—the same way Tombaugh first found Pluto. The winning object could become the most distant ever visited by a spacecraft from Earth. But you don’t even have to get off the couch.
【視聽版科學(xué)小組榮譽(yù)出品】
calling on eyeball subtract out stationary messy
1930年,天文學(xué)家克萊德湯博在研究夜空照片的時候發(fā)現(xiàn)了矮行星冥王星。它是柯伊伯帶中最先被發(fā)現(xiàn)的物體。柯伊伯帶中的小行星也是不計其數(shù)。美國宇航局的新視野號宇宙飛船計劃在2015年與冥王星親密接觸后造訪柯伊伯帶中的一到二顆小行星。可是那么多小行星，到底選哪一顆呢？ 這回該你出馬了。天文學(xué)家正呼吁公民科學(xué)家伸出援手，幫助他們找到冥王星周圍最外圍的冰冷物質(zhì)。詳情請見。 大型天文望遠(yuǎn)鏡已經(jīng)為人們提供了相關(guān)區(qū)域數(shù)以百萬計的圖像。通過比較不同時間拍攝的照片，科學(xué)家們可以排除諸如遙遠(yuǎn)的銀河之類的靜態(tài)物質(zhì)，并專注于小行星一類沿軌道運(yùn)行的物質(zhì)。 不過，這么多圖像著實讓人頭大，于是科學(xué)家們希望更多的人能夠幫忙找出動態(tài)物質(zhì)——和湯博最早發(fā)現(xiàn)冥王星的方法如出一轍。最終鎖定的目標(biāo)將會成為地球宇宙飛船造訪的最遠(yuǎn)客人。至于你嘛，安心地躺沙發(fā)上就行了~