Asteroid Zoo Talk

Asteroids are getting rarer and rarer, and Known Asteroids rarer still

  • mboschmd by mboschmd

    I've seen only 4 known asteroids in the last 1,000 sets I examined and can go 100 to 120 sets before finding an unknown asteroid. Last known asteroid I saw was over 500 sets ago. It feels like I've entered the Sahara Desert for asteroids.

    When I did find 2 asteroids, they were almost numerically sequential. I checked sets nearby and found six more sets with an asteroid on it. This all seems very odd...any idea what might explain it? It seems like the more I work, the fewer unknowns I find, and even fewer knowns asteroids get sent my way.

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  • Emili_Sancha by Emili_Sancha

    I think the same...

    Perhaps is a zone away from main belt...

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  • dudrea by dudrea

    Same for me... No more #known since a lot of time...

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  • Dr.Asteroid by Dr.Asteroid scientist, admin

    Is this still occurring? I've checked the data you're using and it looks like it's still incrementing. Please let me know.

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  • mboschmd by mboschmd

    Definitely still occurring. No known asteroids in over 1,900 sets.

    Anyone else still having a similar experience?

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  • mboschmd by mboschmd

    This suggests others are seeing the message, "Congratulations, you've found one or more known asteroids, etc" because this object AAZ0000ncb has a notation by it with two hashtags: Incorrect information, and No Green Circle.

    It appears I'm getting known asteroids, but the computer fails to acknowledge that. I found two large, very bright asteroids that must have been known to the computer because they were so obvious, yet there was no Known Asteroid label with this object. The two objects are AAZ00004v6 and AAZ0001r7t. Neither appear in anyone's "Known Asteroid" collection.

    Perhaps it is computer error that has resulted in my no having seen any known asteroids in over 2,100 sets to date.

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  • mboschmd by mboschmd

    Did an additional 1,000 sets; no known asteroids encountered. To date, 3,100 sets without seeing a known asteroid.

    Could you check my data and see if it agrees with that I'm seeing? In addition to the known asteroid issue, out of the last 294 sets done, I found one asteroid. I check Talk on every set to see if there's agreement with other users, and there's 100% agreement.

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  • DZM by DZM admin

    Passing this back to the Doc... Thanks for keeping us informed!

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  • Dr.Asteroid by Dr.Asteroid scientist, admin

    @miltonbosch - sometimes the asteroids that you detect are missed by the computer even though they're very bright. Typically that's due to proximity to a bright star or sometimes the pipeline just fails.

    but if you've done 1000 sets - without a known asteroid... I agree. That is interesting. Let me see what's going on. That seems improbable.

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  • DZM by DZM admin

    We are looking into it behind the scenes. Poke us if we don't get back to you about it fairly soon!

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  • mboschmd by mboschmd

    It's actually no known asteroids in over 3,100 sets. You asked me to give you a poke if I haven't heard anything fairly soon, so I figured 2 months was a decent time interval.

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  • mboschmd by mboschmd

    3 months and still no response on why I am getting no known asteroids and very very few unknowns. This is statistically impossible unless the data stream is being purposefully manipulated. Over 3,500 sets done without seeing a known asteroid in the last six months.

    Please give me some kind of response. Please see if my data stream is being doctored somehow.

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  • DZM by DZM admin

    Hey @miltonbosch -- I'm sorry that this is still happening. I checked with a developer and he says that all of the code seems to be intact and that there's nothing that should make your account any different from any other.

    I don't know if there is something different about the data that is currently being served, whether it has no known asteroids, or whether known asteroids might not be marked for some reason. That is a question for the science team, so I am sending another email to Dr. Asteroid to see if they know anything.

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  • DZM by DZM admin

    I have several people looking into this. We can see that @miltonbosch has not seen a known asteroid since June 2014.

    There seems to be general consensus that this is weird and wrong. I have an email chain going with the developers and the science team. Trying to figure out what the deal is...

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  • Barbalbero by Barbalbero

    I also noticed recently, I mean after the new set of data are available, that it is rare to find asteroids, both known and unknown. I think it depends on the data set, maybe the images refers to parts of the sky where the amount of asteroids is low

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  • DZM by DZM admin in response to Barbalbero's comment.

    But you are still seeing SOME known asteroids. I can see, looking at some data that we just pulled, that you got at least one just yesterday.

    @miltonbosch literally has not seen one for six months. (The date is actually October 30, 2014, the last time he saw any.)

    That's definitely something weird and we're looking into it!

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  • mboschmd by mboschmd

    I logged on to Asteroid Zoo after a 5 month hiatus, and the first image set had a bright, unknown asteroid (frames 1 and 2 only, moved off field in frame 3 unfortunately). If it was artifact, it should have reappeared to the left of the 1st image, in frame 4.

    That was followed shortly by the first Known Asteroid I've seen in nearly a year. Known as (71236) 2000 AC5 (Asteroid Zoo ID is AAZ0002zew). A couple hours later I found this known asteroid, (101477) 1998 WO25 (AAZ0000nf1). 2 known asteroids in one sitting... This is progress!! I appreciate the team effort that's gone into trying to solve this statistical oddity.

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  • jsmjsm by jsmjsm

    I've just started here and have been reading all of the chat / info. I see very little feedback coming from the site operators regarding 'found asteroids' ... is there a page that shows discovery images or a page of credits for found asteroids? Am I missing something or is there a distinct lack of user-feedback?

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  • hightower73 by hightower73

    there is no page but its in the pipeline we assume, and user-feedback has been poor at best till now but they are working on it

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  • jsmjsm by jsmjsm

    One would think this would be top priority if they are interested in keeping the zoonies motivated. I've noticed a lot of 'coming soons' from admin but these were a year ago. If I were going to invest time in this, I would like to see more positive reinforcements...somewhere!

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  • DZM by DZM admin in response to jsmjsm's comment.

    From the research team, @pravk7 has been giving updates. I can't tell you anything from my end... As I wrote elsewhere, if another week goes by and @pravk7 hasn't been around, I can shoot him an email. 😃

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