A new asteroid-hunting computer program will help amateur astronomers and citizen scientists identify potentially hazardous space rocks faster and more accurately, NASA officials say.

Developed by NASA in partnership with Planetary Resources, a company that aims to mine asteroids, the software combines several algorithms developed in the Asteroid Data Hunter challenge.

"We applaud all the participants in the Asteroid Data Hunter challenge," Chris Lewicki, president and chief engineer at Planetary Resources, said in a statement. "We are extremely encouraged by the algorithm created, and its already making a difference. This increase in knowledge will help assess more quickly which asteroids are potential threats, human destinations or resource-rich." [Images: Potentially Dangerous Asteroids]

The new software was announced by a panel of NASA representatives on Sunday (March 16) at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas.

Announced in March 2014, the Asteroid Data Hunter challenge offered a total of $55,000 in awards for participants to develop significantly improved algorithms that could study images captured by ground-based telescopes and identify asteroids.

The winning entries for each section of the contest which focused on minimizing false positives, increasing detection sensitivity, ignoring imperfections in the data and the ability to run effectively on all computer systems were then combined to create an application to scan the skies.

The data hunter challenge kicked off NASAs Asteroid Grand Challenge, which was announced in 2013.

"The Asteroid Grand Challenge is seeking non-traditional partnerships to bring the citizen science and space enthusiast community into NASAs work," Jason Kessler, program executive for NASAs Asteroid Grand Challenge, said in the same statement.

"The Asteroid Data Hunter challenge has been successful beyond our hopes, creating something that makes a tangible difference to asteroid-hunting astronomers and highlights the possibility for more people to play a role in protecting our planet," he added.

In 1801, astronomers spotted the first objectin the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter the dwarf planet Ceres by carefully noting objects that appeared to move over time in comparison with the background stars. Technology allowed scientists to use images rather than memory or carefully sketched maps to compare how these bodies changed locations over time. By the time Clyde Tombaughspotted Pluto in 1930, astronomers around the world were using photographs of the night sky to identify moving objects.

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NASA Software Lets You Hunt Dangerous Asteroids from Home