NASA will pay $35,000 if you can figure out how to stop asteroids from destroying the planet
Wikipedia

A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Attention aspiring paleoclimatologists: NASA is awarding $35,000 to one lucky civilian who can develop a specialized asteroid-detecting technology. The "Asteroid Grand Challenge," which was announced at the South By Southwest Festival today and will begin on March 17, aims to develop better algorithms used to find the flying space rocks that could ruin life as we know it (no pressure).
To win the money, the scientist's solution "must increase the detection sensitivity, minimize the number of false positives, ignore imperfections in the data, and run effectively on all computer systems." That doesn't sound like something you'd get from your run-of-the-mill weekend hack-a-thon.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Protecting the planet from the threat of asteroid impact means first knowing where they are," said Jenn Gustetic, Prizes and Challenges Program executive. "By opening up the search for asteroids, we are harnessing the potential of innovators and makers and citizen scientists everywhere to help solve this global challenge." [Euronews]
Just think how sweet "Asteroid Data Hunter" is going to look on LinkedIn. --Jordan Valinsky
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.
-
The daily gossip: Prime Video is getting ads unless you pay more, Lizzo accepts humanitarian award after being sued again, and more
The daily gossip: September 22, 2023
By Brendan Morrow Published
-
The week's best photojournalism
In Pictures A woman picking cotton, a dog dressed up as a lion and more
By Anahi Valenzuela Published
-
Undignified
Cartoons
By The Week Staff Published
-
More than 2,000 dead following massive earthquake in Morocco
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Mexico's next president will almost certainly be its 1st female president
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
North Korea's Kim to visit Putin in eastern Russia to discuss arms sales for Ukraine war, U.S. says
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Gabon's military leader sworn in following coup in latest African uprising
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstances
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governor
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Los Angeles city workers stage 1-day walkout over labor conditions
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published