Travelers In The Night

Using high powered graphics processing units, a team of 21 astronomers led by Dr. Artem Y. Burdanov of MIT used 93 hours of data from the James Webb Space Telescope or JWST for short to serendipitously search for asteroids which happened to be present in images taken in the of study planets circling distant stars. JWST and the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory will help to fill in asteroid hunters current blind spots. Better asteroid impact prediction will allow asteroid hunters to warn people to stay away from doors and windows and take shelter in the event of an Earth bound space rock much as weather forecasters do currently with tornados and hurricanes.