天文学家正在寻求民间科学家们的帮助来研究天文望远镜拍摄的图像，来发现柯伊伯带内的天体从而新地平线号可以进行观测。【柯伊伯带是一种理论推测认为短周期彗星是来自离太阳50—500天文单位的一个环带。位于太阳系的尽头，其名称源于荷兰裔美籍天文学家柯伊（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