Polish teen discovers planetoid on Internet

[rossshow]

http://news.google.com/news?num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&c2coff=1&rls=SNYC,SNYC:2004-13,SNYC:en&q=planetoid%20internet&sa=N&tab=wn

[rossshow]

The story: A second star-gazing Polish teen has discovered a small new planet, or planetoid, by analysing pictures from Arizona's Kitt Peak observatory posted on the internet.

Now identified as Near Earth Object (NEO) 2005 TD49, the planetoid was discovered by high school student Elzbieta Bogucka, 15, on telescope pictures posted on the Fast Moving Object Spacewatch (FMOS) website. Astronomers in the U.S. checked her tip and confirmed the discovery.

In September fellow-Polish high school student Piotr Bednarek, also 15, was regonised for finding NEO 2005 QK76 and belonging to the Apollo group of small planetary objects. Bednarek also made the discovery while poring over pictures on the FMOS website.

Bogucka says she became a serious star-gazer three years ago and wants to become an astronomer and already has her own website focused on Europe, a satellite of Jupiter.

Last year the first Pole, 25-year-old Mariusz Kurczewski, also found his own small planet - 2004 ST26 - using the FMOS site.

Planetoids, also known as asteroids or minor planets, are small celestial bodies that measure from a few to several hundred kilometres in diameter.

[rossshow]

Planetoid discovery sets off scientific feud

U.S., Spanish astronomers clash over Google search data

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9727022/

The discovery of a new planetoid has set off a bitter feud between American and Spanish scientists while raising questions about the ethics of Internet research.

The dispute began in July when Michael Brown, a professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, discovered a new planetoid in the solar system known as the Kuiper Belt.

Days before announcing his discovery, however, a group of Spanish astronomers claimed the new planetoid.

American researchers said they learned that the Spanish scientists had discovered where Brown was aiming a Chilean telescope by using an Internet search engine.

"This is a wake-up call for scientists," Brown said.

Scientist Jose Luis Ortiz says he and his researchers did nothing wrong and the data found using the Google search engine should be considered public and thus free to use.

"If somebody uses Google to find publicly available information on the Internet and Google directs to a public Web page, that is perfectly legitimate," Ortiz wrote in an e-mail to the Los Angeles Times that the newspaper cited Sunday.

The object at the center of the dispute, which is about 1,000 miles in diameter, had been photographed numerous times in the past, but no one had realized it was a planetoid.

[microbes]

sets off scientific feud

There is also a Feud about who discovered Xena. Folks that discover these things are going to have to stop sitting on the information if they don't want someone to "steal their 15 minutes of fame".

[microbes]

Here is someone who ALMOST got his 15 minutes:

This is another animation on asteroids near a galaxy, this time there are 3 of them near NGC660. Two are quite bright and a third dim one looks to be coming from the center of the galaxy moving upwards. The dim one was only discovered 26 days before I took this.

http://deanrowe.net/

He had not even noticed the third one till someone pointed it out after he posted this on the net:

Animated gif (http://deanrowe.net/images/ngc660_asteroids_animation.gif)

(all it takes to do stuff like this is a $6500 camera, a $5300 telescope and a $9500 mount to put it on.... A little rich for my blood for a hobby, but not totally out of the realm "amateur" equipment)