In a move that brings space science and community collaboration together, Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) has made a generous contribution to the realm of planetary defense by releasing an open-source software designed to spot potentially hazardous celestial fireworks known as bolides, according to USU Today. The newly minted software, dubbed StarFall, is poised to enable professionals and amateurs alike to detect these explosive meteors, which could pose threats to Earth as they blaze through the atmosphere.
Eric McKinney, an SDL algorithm engineer and a StarFall developer, shed light on the cultural significance of shooting stars that have piqued human curiosity for eons, with their awe-inspiring trails across the sky often imbued with myth and mystical meaning, but the reality is, their terrestrial impacts can sometimes be far more than just celestial spectacle, McKinney told USU Today.
StarFall builds on discoveries made back in 2019 when it was found that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) could process data to catch sight of bolides, these meteoric events are discernible by the software through a dedicated algorithm that sifts through GLM data originally intended to track lightning activity, as SDL’s algorithm swiftly differentiates between both to keep an eye out for the tell-tale bright flashes of bolides entering Earth’s atmosphere.
The availability of StarFall as an open-source tool on GitHub means it has the potential to grow and improve through community engagement, individuals around the world can now deploy the software to receive notifications about these natural Earth impactors sharing their estimated times, locations, and the energy they release as they disintegrate in the sky, such robust, interactive features have not only sprung from the innovative work of SDL but also through support from NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, Tyson Johnson, SDL's StarFall program manager, said StarFall is vital for the rapid detection and characterization of these impactful celestial events which, in some rare instances, can erupt with a force to rival historic wartime bombings.
