New type of scientists inspire national scientist movement

[00:00.42] Unless you're an astronomer, the moment when the star in the center of this image flickers may not seem so exciting.

[00:07.32] But it marks the passage of an asteroid, space objects which are usually too small and faint to see.

[00:14.76] Those asteroids sometimes pass very close to us. They are detected a few hours, a few days before the flyby.

[00:23.53] And if we don't follow them up while they're doing the flyby, we will basically lose them.

[00:29.10] In this case, the critical data came from a new consumer telescope carried in a backpack to a desert in Oman.

[00:36.81] Franck Marchis, whose day job at SETI Institute involves working with the world's largest telescopes, designed the eVscope with colleagues at Unistellar to inspire a movement of citizen scientists.

[00:50.61] The goal of the company is to democratize astronomy. I think we are ready for that.

[00:55.13] Advances in technology give the eVscope the power of a room sized telescope while making it much easier to use.

[01:02.56] If you choose a point of interest with the App, the eVscope locates it using a star database as a map.

[01:09.48] A low light sensor enhances faint stars by combining multiple exposures.

[01:15.58] Users can also upload what they're seeing for researchers to analyze.

[01:20.63] So we'd be able to send notification to our users when there is something interesting to observe in the sky, a new comet, a new supernova.

[01:29.40] We are going to be able to put together all those observations and get the best picture.

[01:34.45] An algorithm will search for the unexpected, like asteroids heading our way.

[01:41.08] Or it could be something even more exotic, like the birth of a civilization trying to communicate with us.

[01:47.98] Citizen scientists can have a key role in this new era of space discovery.