Amateurs needed to monitor possible vaporization of Earth
Thad Floryan
<http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/03/12/2034225/Scientists-Need-Volunteers-To-Look-At-the-Sun>
" BBC reports that Royal Observatory's 'Solar Stormwatch'
" needs volunteers to help scientists spot Sun storms
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8552471.stm>
" � known as coronal mass ejections �
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_mass_ejection>
" before they cause damage on Earth.
"
" 'When you look up at the Sun obviously it's too bright to
" look at properly,' says Dr. Marek Kukula of the Royal
" Observatory, but 'with special instruments and telescopes
" you can see there's all sorts of stuff going on.' NASA
" already monitors the Sun using two 'STEREO' spacecraft that
" produce 3D images of earth's nearest star,
<http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/>
" which can show the trajectory of these explosions. However,
" the sheer amount of data means NASA's scientists are unable
" to analyze the data as closely as they need � which is where
" the world's Internet population comes in. After a brief
" tutorial, users get access to the actual 3-D images
" taken by the STEREO spacecraft. If a user believes they have
" spotted the beginnings of a solar storm, they can bring it
" to the attention of scientists. 'Every little bit counts,'
" says Kukula. 'I've spoken to the scientists involved and
" they all agree that even if you log-on and just do it for
" a few hours, get bored and never touch it again it's all
" really useful � and helps them to do their work.