天文學家正在尋求民間科學家們的幫助來研究天文望遠鏡拍攝的圖像，來發現柯伊伯帶內的天體從而新地平線號可以進行觀測。【柯伊伯帶是一種理論推測認為短周期彗星是來自離太陽50—500天文單位的一個環帶。位于太陽系的盡頭，其名稱源于荷蘭裔美籍天文學家柯伊（Kuiper）】。

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 calling on citizen scientists to eyeball images that will help them find the outermost icy bodies in Pluto’s neighborhood. The project is described at the Web site icehunters.org

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 subtract out objects that appear stationary, like far-off galaxies, and focus on things that appear to be moving in orbits, like asteroids.

Now, these pictures can be a bit messy. 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.

—Karen Hopkin